Wishful Features: FarmVille Horse breeders should keep their foals

Our newest Wishful Feature is one that was brought to our attention via some adamant users on the FarmVille forums. Via a thread entitled "Allow horse breeders to keep the foals?", we learned that there is a very strong contingent of players that would like to receive the Foals that are bred by their horses in the Horse Stable, rather than just being forced to either share them with friends, or lose them entirely.

After reading the post, I thought - "You know, that's right! We should be allowed to keep our foals." My claim comes not just out of my somewhat-selfish collector's gene, that makes me want to have one of every FarmVille item ever created, but also from a very logical point-of-view. After all, if I knew that I would have a chance at receiving foals for the Horses that I specifically purchase on my own account, I would be much more likely to spend Farm Cash on the premium horses that are released in FarmVille, recently on somewhat of a weekly basis.

Why should players have to rely on other FarmVille players to purchase the horses that they'd like to receive foals from? I understand that it's a part of FarmVille's social mechanics - that being to share one's bred horses with friends - but this seems like something that would do equally well as a reward for the user that purchases the horse in the first place. Heck, why not make it a "two for one" situation, like so many other events in FarmVille - breed a foal for yourself, and share one with the first lucky neighbor that clicks on a new wall post? It's a win-win for everyone, and it would surely boost the in-game economy (read: pad Zynga's pocketbook) as players start purchasing more and more premium horses for their own use, rather than solely that of their friends.

With FarmVille undergoing multiple updates every week, and the aforementioned forum thread already drawing in over 50 replies, it will be interesting to see if Zynga takes this thought to heart and implements it in the game. We'll make sure to let you know if they do.