CityVille: Visit Sam's Open House to purchase special items

A new feature has launched in CityVille today, giving the game a feature similar to that of FarmVille's Model Farm, which will allow you to now visit Samantha's town (Samantha being the mascot of the game, found at the far right of your friends bar) and purchase the various items you see in her town.

You'll be prompted to visit Samantha the next time you login to your city, and you'll then see the magnifying glass symbol underneath the x5 energy symbol that you're used to. Clicking on this magnifying glass toggles your view between normal and "buying mode." When turned on, matching magnifying glasses will appear over specific items (in this case, many Halloween themed items), allowing you to purchase them directly from her town if you like what you see.

Ultimately, this feature has just about as much worth as that of FarmVille's Model Farm, which is to say, not a lot. Unless you're looking to preview items in their full-sized, animated glory before purchasing them for your town, there's no real reason to even interact with this feature. What's more, aren't these the same items we could see in Samantha's town anyway, by simply visiting? Sure, we can now purchase them directly from her town, but I digress. Perhaps we'll see this feature expanded upon, so that we can buy items when visiting all friends' towns, and not just Samantha. Then, I could potentially see some use in it, but for now, I'll just keep playing the game without it. How about you?

Well, what do you think of this Open House feature in Samantha's city in CityVille? Will you use the feature to buy items directly from her city, or will you continue to use your own store back home? Sound off in the comments.