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Farmville, Social Gaming, and Addiction

Posted by Soulskill on from the tragedy-of-the-common-interest dept.

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."

5 of 251 comments (clear)

  1. Social Networking groups by Idiomatick · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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...

  2. Re:Forget Farmville by Penguinisto · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Are you kidding? I had the same situation, and took the time to breathe one hell of a big sigh of relief that I didn't marry her.

    --
    Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
  3. Better model than PS3/Xbox/Wii by HockeyPuck · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  4. Re:Something I overheard by Firehed · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You probably should be able to - both games are run by the same company.

    Of course, you should also be able to order hits on all of your friends playing FarmVille, so this cross-game thing may not be the best idea after all.

    --
    How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
  5. Re:FarmTown by Evro · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I may be wrong, but my understanding is that FarmVille is a nearly complete ripoff of FarmTown, and FarmTown has a lot more interesting features (interaction with other players, etc).

    --
    rooooar