Slashdot Mirror
Farmville, Social Gaming, and Addiction
MarkN writes "Facebook has been trumpeting the fact that Farmville, the most popular game on its site, has more users than Twitter, with 69 million playing over a month and 26 million playing each day. Combined with Facebook's announcement that they have hit 350 million users, that means one out of every five people on Facebook is playing Farmville. Gamasutra has a post taking a critical analysis of Farmville, its deceptively slow level grind, how a number of gameplay features end up as simply decorative since they aren't balanced with the benefits of raising crops, and discussing why Farmville succeeds so well in virally spreading itself and addicting people."
It's the first MMORPG-like game not considered geek: it's played by women.
In soviet russia the government regulates the companies.
Something I overheard: "Can I grow weed on Farmvile and sell it on Mafia Wars?"
San Francisco Photographers
Deliberately not going to RTFA because it sounds like a buzzkill in the name of overanalysis. Also, "duh!"
And, then there's FarmTown, almost the exact same game. That's the annoying bit about Facebook apps, everyone one has at least two or three near duplicates.
a glorified version of Harvest Moon.
Hey, 1 in 5 people use this application. Remember that once the application has more than a million users, it can access not only your personal information, but everyone's personal information you can access. So, in short, the creators of Farmville have access to most, if not all, of the Facebook database. Moo, moo.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
...that smattering of myminicity spam we had a few years ago, and Slashdot's use of exponents for achievements such as "most consecutive days logged in", right? :)
Security and "China farmers".
First, the security issue is an obvious one, when you're tempted to hand out your password so someone can "babysit" your farm.
The other one would be an interesting one indeed. So far, I doubt any online farming game (usually browser games) got big enough to even attract "goldsellers", whatever form they may take. Now, I neither have a facebook account nor play this game, so someone who does might be able to give me a hint whether it's possible to hand over money (or whatever resource there is) in the game, but it would be interesting to see what the owners of Facebook think of a sudden dramatic increase of new users who all just play this game, know each other and basically are nothing but a huge grinder farm (no pun intended). I'd guess they wouldn't be too happy since it would poison their data pool quite a bit.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
It's true: Nerds have way too much time on their hands.
I think the fact that a poor game can be so popular is the fact that they are targeting addicted social network users. That is like saying you can sell games and apps for more on an iphone... duhhh. It is all about the user base. I bet you could shoot fish in a barrel too...
Due to Farmvilles massive spamming, and my inability to make it stop telling me when my sisters/friends/coworkers have found a new cow, I've actually resorted to unfriending people who are farmville addicts. My "newsfeed" went from updates on my friends lives to 3/4 farmville useless announcements, making it effectively useless. I was tempted to install the app to see if I could filter them somehow, but ultimately said forget it.
It's fine if people want to play games, but frankly, the rest of the world doesn't care or need to know that you planted seeds. If I installed a facebook app that broadcasted every time I got a green drop in WoW I'm sure my friends wouldn't be too happy.
Add to this the Mafia wars spam, and these stupid little apps have made a mess out of what was once a useful tool for me to keep on top of my friends day to day and related silliness.
We emerge from our mother's womb an unformatted diskette; our culture formats us. - Douglas Coupland
I swear, if I see another post about one of my "friends" finding a little lost duckling or sheep or whatever on my facebook feed I'm going to start making heavy use of the "unfriend" feature. If you want to play your game, fine, but PLEASE facebook, give me the ability to turn off notifications from stupid games like that! I might even try playing it if I wasn't so annoyed by all the crap it spews onto my facebook page and worried that I'd annoy my friends and family in turn - that and I don't trust ANY applications interacting with my facebook account.
No, I don't want that drink, poke, hug, heart, angel, bush or whatever. Thanks all the same, especially not when I have to click a button to give it access to my account. Yes, I'm paranoid.
"terrorism" and "pedophilia" are the root passwords to the Constitution
I've had a website design customer start playing it on their laptop during a website consultation! I think that game messes with people's heads. Also, and I'm just reporting this as is without comment, a guy at my brother's work who happens to be african american plays it and 100% of his crops are cotton. Now how would that even happen? Lol. It just seems like something a normal, sane person wouldn't do :P
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
If only FarmVille approached even a fraction of the things you can do in the Harvest Moon series.
I think saying it's a glorified version is being too nice.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Facebook will ruin your life.
A few months ago I signed up on Facebook, just for the heck of it. Then I noticed that there were a lot of people I went to High School with on there. Pretty soon I was gettng friend request from them. One day I got a friend request from an old girlfriend who I hadn't seen since graduating. My only memory of her was when she was 17 -- cute with big titties. And then I looked at her current picture.
She has not aged well.
My fantasies are ruined.
A lot of gamers have played Runescape, Diablo 2 or similar and experienced enough "why am I wasting my time", "but it's so addicting" to learn to resist starting a new addicting game. A lot of Farmville players likely haven't experienced this, so they have no built up immunity and will waste their time without a second thought.
While you could argue any game is a waste of time, Farmville's grind only earns you the opportunity to continue grinding- no end goal, no endgame sandbox. At least when you have a goal in sight you can tell when it isn't getting any closer.
My webcomic
I wouldn't even go on my facebook page if it wasn't for the games. The people that use facebook are BORING.
I really don't care what any of my friends had for dinner, the new dress they bought or what their little kids did that morning. Yes, clicking random bullshit in Mafia wars is more interesting to me than those things.
I attempted to steer updates into the things that interest me (programming and technology) but gave up after one of my "friends" just posted a "what?" comment on it.
I then realized that the social aspect of Facebook is completely uninteresting to me. I'll just stick with slashdot, forums, newsgroups, IM and IRC for doing my nerd chat.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
... such as how to use the "hide" button that pops up when you put your mouse over it in the feed.
Do you just load the page and wait to see what happens?
There's a lot you can filter if you take two seconds to look.
I don't know at what "time" (months ago, etc.) you started unfriending addicts, but there is a simpler way to block all Farmville posts.
If you see one Farmville post in your feed, click it on the top right and you get two choices:
1 - hide all posts from Farmville
2 - hide all posts from this user.
All you have to do is select item #1. I've used it for any/all apps appearing in my feed.
You don't have to use these apps for them to have access to your account: If your friends use the apps the apps can access everything your friends can access.
Yawn.
Just about as exciting as watching paint dry or Baseball(for people outside the US)
And Twitter is 'so Yesterday'
Everyone where I works plays it, except me, it's total cheese but they love it...why?
Because to them it's better than working.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
I really don't care what any of my friends had for dinner, the new dress they bought or what their little kids did that morning.
When you visit your friends, you do say "hey, nice new dress!", or "how're the kids doing?", or "so how's that diet you're on working out for you?", right?
Oh well, if they're geeks too, I suppose "So did you hear about this new smartphone that runs Linux?" is more appropriate, but it sounds like you're dissing small talk rather than dissing facebook as a medium for small talk.
The latter I agree with, the former I don't---even though I'm not a particularly well-renowned practitioner of said art ;-)
Something I have noticed which is odd is that the games use "their" when a new posting has come up.
Like this,
"...got a big ol' reward for being such a great farmer and wants to share their success with you"
If these games have access to users' personal information you'd think they'd know enough about each user to use "his" or "her" in place of "their."
And, then there's FarmTown, almost the exact same game. That's the annoying bit about Facebook apps, everyone one has at least two or three near duplicates
The number of players cited above is far and away much "bigger" than World of WarCraft has ever had, and it was certainly big enough for gold farmers. It's not about the fact it's not big enough.
The fact is, it's simply not necessary since Zynga already sells in game items, money, and upgrades for real money. Through their own business model, they've weeded out the "Chinese farmers".
I've got a friend that purchased on his own a Wii (so his kids/wife can play games) and a PS3 for his hardcore (FPS and fighting) games. He received a xbox360 as a gift from a cousin. Probably has about a $1000 worth of platforms and associated games.
Yet if his wife doesn't tell him "Go to bed, it's late" he can play Mafiawars/Farmville until the sun comes up. Amazing how addictive these games are without having to have massive graphics, sound, rumble controllers, online multiplayer. Just a flash interface and a bunch of clicking.
I'm waiting for Southpark to do an episode on Farmville as a remake of the WoW episode.
And, then there is FarmTown, almost the exact same game. That's the annoying bit about Facebook apps, everyone one has at least two or three near duplicates.
I think I've finally managed to block all of the CURRENT hit games that my friends are addicted to on FB, but it is annoying to have to block each application individually.
Is there a way to simply block ALL present and future application notices?
All I want to see are what people type in their profile and their pictures. I am not interested in watching people play games, or hearing about the results.
A work that expires before its copyright never enters the public domain and thus enjoys eternal copyright protection.
Okay, sibling posts aren't happy with the sexism in parent post. Understandable.
However, modifying the post to the following, it makes an interesting statement:
"It's the first MMORPG-like game not considered geek: this is evidenced by the fact that it's played by a larger percentage/amount of women than play WoW and the like."
A similar factor was behind _The Sims_ being such a huge hit.
I have no issue with females being involved in primarily-male activities.
However, I feel that the disparity should still be acknowledged, rather than papered over out of a desire for political correctness.
Same thing applies in reverse, males being involved in predominately female activities; I'm not like "OMG gay!" or anything.
In an unrelated note, shuffle presented me with a Janis Joplin song as I was typing this post. (Also, the headline act at the concert I went to included a female MC/DJ). :P
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
In my case, it's been a whole bunch of round-structured browser games. A few of them got kicked to the curb months ago, and I will stop after finishing the current round of the last one.
This experience has kept me far away from WoW and the Facebook games.
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
I might make that Rule 2, with the following as Rule 1:
"If the game isn't fun anymore (i.e. because the grind has driven you nuts), then quit".
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
Mark makes some excellent points. We are rapidly evolving the BattleCell game (BattleCell.com) to fit the gaping-wide hole that has become today's Social Gaming world: If it's a Social Game, how come I can't interact with my friends and other players? Zynga has brilliantly demonstrated that you can build a successful business model by effectively marrying good viral marketing (aka, News Feed) with the addictive behaviors identified in your article. Today's Social Gaming offering is comprised of hyped up Tamagotchi digital pet reproductions that allow players to look over their friends' shoulders. One can't really argue with success, of course. But, Mark's final statement nails it --players are left wishing that the game was more fun, that it had more depth after all their investment, that it offered something more meaningful than just another way to spend one's time.
Blocking only blocks a single app. While that works for farmville it does nothing for the constant stream of other games, gifts, quizzes, and other information-free crap. I feel like sisyphus, condemned for all eternity to hit this block button over and over again, to little effect, just to read the few real updates. If I don't log into facebook twice a day my chances of catching most of the real stuff rapidly approach zero because even though I only have two-dozen contacts or so the real stuff is flooded off daily by a wave of new crud.
I don't want to waste my life blocking game after game. I just want real comments written by real people to show up on another tab. Is that so hard?
Somehow I doubt this is at all accidental on the part of facebook.
Ok this may not be quite newsworthy but, it's Sunday right? Anyway, the energy consumed by 26 million CPUs running at or near 100% utilization for 15 or so minutes each day translates to a considerable corporate carbon footprint. It *must* be possible to halve these requirements without impact to actual gameplay.
"Deceptively" is the worst word in the English language. No one has a clue as to what it means.
See the usage note here.
Viable Slashdot alternatives: https://pipedot.org/ and http://soylentnews.org/
This is being posted as a notice to the farmville-addicted family and friends.
You Should Too!
You can disable that.
You can only fully disable it if you completely opt out of using any Facebook applications. While it's true that most Facebook apps are crap, it'd be nice to be able to play Lexulous with friends without having any black-hat or social marketer who's written a quiz have access to my name and list of friends (along with whatever other info I'm not careful enough about).
The option they need is: "only reveal even my mere existence to apps I've explicitly opted into."
Tweet, tweet.
someone still believe in this global warming scam?
New Economic Perspectives
That bot is based on actually clicking. It requires a fullscreen zoomed out application of farmville running for it to work. Farmvillebot.net has a free application that doesn't need a screen of farmville. It will happily run in the taskbar, and it's free.
SPAM
Google "Level Up Really Fast using the plow/plant/destroy trick" 1010 hits for that exact phrase.
Go find somewhere else to market your stuff!
Warning - above is referal spam!
Real techs write their own bots anyway.
Sad state of affair, can u believe that some of my friends went from GTA to farmville. WTF? Love the farmbot advertisement further up! Go get em, "tiger". Heard that some people are afraid to go to work because someone could steal the freakin virtual crop!
Country Life is way cooler and graphics are better. I've played both and I personally recommend CL over FV.
Screw that. Any geek worth his salt will write his own scripts. Hell, I used to write my own GuildWars scripts when I was playing hardcore.
I learned a long long time ago if you need a bot to play your game, you shouldn't be playing the game, it's become a second job.
Some people find it meditative, it can just be a way to relax and not think for a 20 minute break. As this any worse then watching that tivo'd simpsons repeat episode again? I also know a lot of people get accounts because their friends want them to because you need certain number of friends to get certain items, but the friends while havng a farm, never actually use it
Yours maybe.
TPJ - Founder, The Amazon Basin
http://xkcd.com/322/
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
Until koreans start dropping dead in internet cafe's from marathon farmville sessions, I refuse to acknowledge it's addictiveness
Defender of Microsoft and Communism!!!
Seriously. Farmville?
I'll do you one better.
I'm annoyed that I need a Facebook account just to receive what we used to call, "Email".
The advantage I see is that open messages can turn into impromptu, albeit simple discussion forums with built-in photo catalogs. This can be more useful than email for some jobs.
But that's not what it's all about, as Farmville indicates. I think Facebook touches some kind of primal-tribal-pack-animal nerve. Farmville itself might represent more than just a dumb game with an addictive tamagachi edge. It might be a subconscious response to the fact that our food supply is precarious and stupid and that survival might fairly soon depend upon being able to raise chickens and grow potatoes in your back yard.
-FL
I don't understand why people get all pissy when you mention Farmville. If you don't want to play, then don't. But you don't have to hate people that do and call them noobs or sheep.
The reason people play is the same reason people buy the Wii. It's accessible. Anyone can fucking play. Anyone. I know that for the hardcore player out there that just seems wrong, but you know what? The gaming world doesn't revolve around you.
If you don't what to see that shit in your news feed, choose to hide announcements from that app. Simple. Other people have other opinions. Learn to accept it.
In the interest of full disclosure, I'm level 41 in Farmville and have never paid a dime for content.
My grandfather has logged like, 20 hours in Farmville this week.
(That's a lot for normal people to you WoW players.)
Has the old saint in his forest not yet heard of it? That God is dead?
There are obviously gaming platforms out there that do not get out of sync as often, do not hang up as often or just simply crap out because you have gotten too far ahead of your person when you are plowing planting and harvesting.... Based on this fact alone, Yea Zynga has problems.
I like to blame flash, feels like the problem and strongly believe that if a competitor came out with a Second Life world (virtual 3-D) for Farming, call it FarmValley or FarmCounty, whatever, and used NO FLASH, nothing proprietary that limits them to only one operating system and scaled items correctly, for instance a cat should be smaller than a dog, a dog smaller than a cow, a cow smaller than a person and a person smaller than a building for starters. Say C, PHP, maybe C++, little or no Java, no .NET, and only languages higher than those three to add additional features, not to prevent those three (C, PHP and C++) from being used. Such a virtual social platform would as quickly supplant FarmVille as FarmVille did Farmtown. Heck Zynga is on the record as stating a better GUI and user experience is what made them better. You think they would cut the out of syncs, crashing and hanging caused largely by Flash. You would think....
Last time I read about the development tools for Second Life, they did not depend on Flash and they were doing some incredible things with rendering images and moving through those rendered images... I freely admit that I have not developed for Zynga or Second Life and if I had, I would better understand the true limitations. I know others will fill me in and I will be interested in reading what you right...thanks in advance.
Is your Internet Throttled? Install DD-Wrt, OpenWRT or Tomato to learn the truth! Google: 1Gbps/1Gbps: 5 Communities
i left farmville on FB because http://speed.neuroninteractive.com/?pref=28 was more addicting
but none actually *like* it
I wouldn't be surprised if there are X-rated MMO's out there.
I want to avoid starting myself on new MMOs, X-rated or otherwise, though.
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
I admit it. I am addicted to Farmville. I can't stop myself from pressing the "Ignore Farmville" button.
If you’re sick and tired of running around totally broke while other players get barns and greenhouses and the most expensive villa, this information is for you.
You’ve probably always wondered why you can’t seem to make as much money or level up as fast as the other players in the game.
Learn more : http://www.farmville-secrets.tk
I used to wonder the same thing. I thought,
“Where are these people making money so fast?”
“Are they buying it on FarmVille?”
“What are they growing and selling?”
So I set out to spy on all the successful players I could find to see just what they did to earn all of their money and to level up so fast.
Learn more : http://www.farmville-secrets.tk
Just a little post to share an amazing tool : Farmer Extreme Manager. ;-)
Perfect to dominate FarmVille for free
http://tinyurl.com/farmer-extreme-manager