The Phenomenon of Farmville and Farmtown
August 16th 2009 02:15
For those of us that are on Facebook you will no doubt have come across someone's update saying they have done something on either Farmville or Farmtown. Facebook offers many inhouse quizzes and games ranging from How Big is Your Penis? to What 80's song represents you? to Which Harry Potter character are you?
It also offers some amazing games, two of which are Farmville and Farmtown. Both these games are pretty much the same except for aesthetics and are fast becoming two of the most addictive games in internet history. For something that started a few months ago to something that had approximately NINE MILLION visitors yesterday tending their crops this is an astounding phenomenon. I myself started out about a month ago due to every single teenager at my work having status updates relating to Farmville, so I thought I would suss it out. About three years ago I bagged out all my work friends who played World of Warcraft until one of them told me to try it out. Thinking it unfair to bag something out with no knowledge of it I agreed and then commenced my two year massive addiction with the game, only ceasing when my computer could no longer keep up with the system requirements to play this high end graphics game.
And when I stated on FB (Facebook) that I loved Farmville and Farmtown my geeky wow friend said to me that she "Loved FV (Farmville) < WOW". My ever geeky response (that Morgan will slap her forhead was) "Love of FV > WOW when WOW possibility ='s 0". So now I have found something nowhere on the scale of WOW but just as soothing, relaxing and satisfying, FV (and FT).
Both games work on the principle that you are given little plots of land that you can work, design and build. Although you can use real money to purchase game coins or dollars to buy some things for your land (a stupid stupid ploy for addicts to make money off them - similar on WOW also), nothing will move you up in the ranks except working your farm. FarmTown offers the additional benefit of being able to work other farms for coins and experience points. It’s the experience points that send you up the ladder, and the coins you can gather in won’t change that. FarmVille, a newer game, has yet to be interactive. You can visit other farms, but you can’t harvest or plow them like you can in FarmTown.
The game is not only fun and methodical, as you can sit there picking crops, ploughing fields or planting seeds one box at a time for hours on end. But what people don't realise is that this game is also a brilliant way for people to put forward their creative minds on design and color usage but it is also an amazing way to learn business and investment skills. One forum I read was about an economics teacher who made all his students play the game, be neighbors with all their classmates so they could gift each other and/ or work for each other and make them compete for the biggest and best farm. These are terrific business skills to learn. How much does it cost to invest in a seed, to plow each plot, and what is the return on investment (ROI)? What gives the best ROI in the shortest amount of time? How can you expand your farm without going broke? All valuable life skills that kids as young as 5 could work out playing these games.
FarmVille, besides not being as interactive, has a different, more realistic factor, in that if you don’t harvest your crops in a timely fashion, they waste away, and you’ve lost your time, money and effort.
FarmTown is more addictive of the two games because there is a frenzy to constantly find work to get coins and points. People will play the game but how does that translate into real life? Pineapples pay the best to harvest and raspberries the least, but when someone hires you to work on their farm, you have no idea what crops await you or if you’ve been called to plow. You do the job, thank the person, and you’re off to your own farm again or back in the market looking for work.
FarmTown also has the benefit of not only being a game but also a social networking site. You get to know other farmers, you become buddies with them, and eventually you learn about them on a personal level. I’d rather do FarmTown than Twitter any day - at least it's productive.
Some of this article is borrowed from hotsuccessformula.com and all the photos are of my own farms in both games - be sure to check it out. You can find both myself and Ms Morgan on there.
Now off I go as my rice crops are ready for harvesting and I want a four hour crop planted soon so I can plant another crop to grow overnight
It also offers some amazing games, two of which are Farmville and Farmtown. Both these games are pretty much the same except for aesthetics and are fast becoming two of the most addictive games in internet history. For something that started a few months ago to something that had approximately NINE MILLION visitors yesterday tending their crops this is an astounding phenomenon. I myself started out about a month ago due to every single teenager at my work having status updates relating to Farmville, so I thought I would suss it out. About three years ago I bagged out all my work friends who played World of Warcraft until one of them told me to try it out. Thinking it unfair to bag something out with no knowledge of it I agreed and then commenced my two year massive addiction with the game, only ceasing when my computer could no longer keep up with the system requirements to play this high end graphics game.
And when I stated on FB (Facebook) that I loved Farmville and Farmtown my geeky wow friend said to me that she "Loved FV (Farmville) < WOW". My ever geeky response (that Morgan will slap her forhead was) "Love of FV > WOW when WOW possibility ='s 0". So now I have found something nowhere on the scale of WOW but just as soothing, relaxing and satisfying, FV (and FT).
Both games work on the principle that you are given little plots of land that you can work, design and build. Although you can use real money to purchase game coins or dollars to buy some things for your land (a stupid stupid ploy for addicts to make money off them - similar on WOW also), nothing will move you up in the ranks except working your farm. FarmTown offers the additional benefit of being able to work other farms for coins and experience points. It’s the experience points that send you up the ladder, and the coins you can gather in won’t change that. FarmVille, a newer game, has yet to be interactive. You can visit other farms, but you can’t harvest or plow them like you can in FarmTown.
The game is not only fun and methodical, as you can sit there picking crops, ploughing fields or planting seeds one box at a time for hours on end. But what people don't realise is that this game is also a brilliant way for people to put forward their creative minds on design and color usage but it is also an amazing way to learn business and investment skills. One forum I read was about an economics teacher who made all his students play the game, be neighbors with all their classmates so they could gift each other and/ or work for each other and make them compete for the biggest and best farm. These are terrific business skills to learn. How much does it cost to invest in a seed, to plow each plot, and what is the return on investment (ROI)? What gives the best ROI in the shortest amount of time? How can you expand your farm without going broke? All valuable life skills that kids as young as 5 could work out playing these games.
FarmVille, besides not being as interactive, has a different, more realistic factor, in that if you don’t harvest your crops in a timely fashion, they waste away, and you’ve lost your time, money and effort.
FarmTown is more addictive of the two games because there is a frenzy to constantly find work to get coins and points. People will play the game but how does that translate into real life? Pineapples pay the best to harvest and raspberries the least, but when someone hires you to work on their farm, you have no idea what crops await you or if you’ve been called to plow. You do the job, thank the person, and you’re off to your own farm again or back in the market looking for work.
FarmTown also has the benefit of not only being a game but also a social networking site. You get to know other farmers, you become buddies with them, and eventually you learn about them on a personal level. I’d rather do FarmTown than Twitter any day - at least it's productive.
Some of this article is borrowed from hotsuccessformula.com and all the photos are of my own farms in both games - be sure to check it out. You can find both myself and Ms Morgan on there.
Now off I go as my rice crops are ready for harvesting and I want a four hour crop planted soon so I can plant another crop to grow overnight
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Get back on your farm!!!!
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I have added you on FB - now we can be farming neighbors if you want!