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Facebook can be a lot of fun. It's a great way to to keep up with family and friends.
But sometimes it can get on my nerves. Every time I log onto my FB account there's at least two to three new updates about my friends achieving something or another in "FarmVille". Not to mention the countless game invitations!
When I first saw it, the first thing I asked myself was, what the heck is "FarmVille" and why are so many people playing it? So I clicked the link to check it out to see what all the fuss was about.
For those of you who don't know, "FarmVille" is a game on FB that puts the player into the life of a farmer. It's a never-ending cycle of planting crops, waiting for the crops to grow in real-time overnight or throughout the day, and then harvesting the crops before they whither.
Each level unlocks a new set of crops for players to plant worth more than the last ones. You can customize your farms with ponds, fences, statues, houses, and even Christmas trees, and compare your farms with your friends.
After hearing that FarmVille has over 73 million active users on a daily basis" even more than "World of Warcraft." I figured that there must be something about the game that the average FB user finds alluring. And in always trying to expand my knowledge of games, I finally gave in and started playing.
SideNote: Last October, the New York Times published an article that claimed FarmVille farmers outnumbered actual farmers in the US by a ratio of more than 60:1.
Dr. Phil recently hosted a show all about the dangers of FarmVille addiction!
First, there's the matter of getting started. The "FarmVille" app is free, but if you want crops and other high-end tools for taking care of your farm, you'll actually need to pay real money for cash and game coins.
And on the surface, it seemed like such a simple (if not mindless) harmless game.
But Michael Arrington, founder of Techcrunch blog, has criticised developer Zynga for "monetising" FarmVille.
He said it encouraged players to buy in-game currency, Farm Cash, which allows players to progress faster. New users are given some virtual coins, but users who are desperate to buy the tractors, seeds, cows and sheep more quickly can click on the "Add Farm Coins and Cash" link to buy virtual money with real cash using credit cards or cell phone contracts.
FarmVille makes clear in its terms and conditions that Farm Cash cannot be redeemed for "real world" money, goods or other items of monetary value from Zynga or any other party.
So in other words if you're not crazy about micro-transactioning or just plain broke, you're probably best off avoiding this game altogether.
"Farmville" and other FB games might be fun, but if you don't want to play them, the constant invites are infuriating. Many FB games are like Ponzi schemes . By that I mean, the way to succeed is to get more people playing.
And once you've managed to filter out one game, another pops up.
Shocking as it may sound coming from the girliegamer- in my opinion, FB should just be used for what it was originally created for-social networking, not social gaming.
There I said it! Sometimes I just want to get away from the gaming world, ok.
It doesn't help that "Farmville" and other FB games aren't even that much fun to play. I didn't find anything particularly innovative about FarmVille's gameplay in the least,
just your average MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) such as "World of Warcraft and "Dungeon and Dragons." Except there are no cool dragons to slay, and no dungeons to conquer. Much of the time is spent building a fence around your sheep (exciting!) and tending to your precious, delicate strawberries for days on end.
Yet it still manages to attract millions, millions of players. Obviously then, there has to be something more going on here than just people are playing Farmville.
It has absolutely nothing to do with growing anything, Farmville is popular because it's all about the sharing /helping family and friends to advance in the game levels, earn ribbons and such. It's a never-ending cycle,every time a player logs onto FB they are reminded that their neighbors have sent them gifts, posted bonuses on their walls, and helped with their farms.
So they feel obligated to return the favor.
It's rude to refuse a gift, and even ruder not return the kindness. We play Farmville, then, because we are trying to be good to one another. People have become obsessed and find it pretty much impossible to stop.
In the words of the great Dr. Phil "Get out of Farmville start a garden for real!"
Update:Farmville is now available on iPhones, iPods and iPads.
Let the farm domination begin!
Get Farmville Here
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Posted by oxyjen on Sep 12, 2010
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