FarmVille IMO

In between finishing my NHL 10 post and renting the newest game a few friends of mine suggested quite jovially that I start playing FarmVille. FarmVille is a flash game made by Zynga and is built on the foundation that farming is fun. I was extremely skeptical, but they zealously described their excitement for planting strawberries and buying buildings to adorn their farms and rescuing cute little pink cows.

FarmVille is a simple game that consists of plowing fallow plots of land and then planting seeds of various plant types. After a certain predetermined growth period you begin harvesting and selling your crops for coins. There is a bit of strategy as each seed you can purchase sells for a different amount and they grow at different rates. This is where the game ceases having depth. (Oh I almost forgot to mention that all of the things you can buy with the coins you earn from farming!) One may purchase all sorts of buildings, decorations, and vehicles. All of these things can be placed on your farm wherever you see fit. Although they do absolutely nothing for you, the vehicles don't make you go faster, the barns don't let you store more seed and the decorations are so trivial.

I started playing FarmVille one week ago today and decided to really play this game as best as I could. I started by using all the available land to place my plots down, to maximize the amount I could plant at one time. Then I chose the best seed for my goals, which were to make the most amount of money/experience by only checking FarmVille once a day, which happened to be Soybeans. I also decided I wasn't going to spend any coins on the useless items (anything but seeds) and just horde my coins to see how well I did. There is one other way to gain coins and experience points in FarmVille. By inviting your Facebook friends to play FarmVille they become your "neighbours". You can visit your neighbours farms once a day and help out. They always have one of four issues, and you just need to click "accept" to help out, there by receiving coins/exp. This is by far the best way to gain exp and grow in levels, and I really liked this about FarmVille. It is a new idea that you can visit other peoples farms and instead of negatively affecting them you can "positively" affect their farm.

In one week I managed to get to level 13 and have 37 885 coins. Nothing else has happened, my farm looks just like it did when I first started, my farmer looks the same, I'm not any closer to the end of the game. I was under the impression that games of any nature had an end, a point of completion, a way of measuring success. It turns out that I was wrong. Doing some quick research I discovered the definitions for Video Game and a great light was shed upon my life. The definition of "Video Game" from dictionary.com:

n. An electronic or computerized game played by manipulating images on a video display or television screen.

This definition isn't specific enough with out defining game. The definition of "Game" from the same website:

–noun 1. an amusement or pastime.

By these definitions I guess you could say that FarmVille is a "video game". People seemed to be "amused" by this series of clicks and flashing images. In fact I heard a stat from a source that stated "there are more people actively playing FarmVille than the population of Canada". That's a lot of people wasting a lot of time for no purpose other than to placate their own lives. Zynga was smart by adding a small button that simply states "+ add coins and cash" to the game interface. This small button then takes you to a screen where you may purchase coins and cash with a credit card. Now lets say 1 in 5 people are dumb enough to purchase fake money for real money, it happens and you know it (remember WoW). The population of Canada as of 2009 is 33,819,000. 20% of that number (or 1 in 5) is 6,736,800 people. Hypothetically speaking, that means that nearly 7 million people who play FarmVille are dumb enough to buy coins and cash. Lets do the math.

6,736,800 X $5 (minimum purchase amount on FarmVille) = $33,819,000 (ironically, the same as the population of Canada as of the 2009 statistic).

That's a lot of money for a simple flash game and I feel like these numbers are on the low side of reality. I did make the decision to play FarmVille for one week to try it out but I also found myself just needing to play it. It was oddly quite addicting, I just had to harvest and plant more seeds. FarmVille is not for the weak willed, if you find yourself easily addicted to mindless meaningless tasks then beware. For those of you who appreciate a great flash game, stay away! Do not be fooled by images of riding a tractor around your multicoloured hay bales while your hordes of cows and ducks cheer you on, its all a ruse. I would suggest to all who play this game: break your bonds to its slavery and if you still need to escape reality for even just 15 minutes maybe pick up reading again, or just visit my blog.

Thank you for your time my friends.