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Mozilla Updates Firefox To Appease FarmVille Users

Posted by Soulskill on from the if-only-they-could-be-motivated-to-be-a-force-of-good dept.

CWmike writes "Just three days after adding plug-in crash protection to Firefox, Mozilla rushed out another release because people playing FarmVille on Facebook complained that their browser was shutting down the game. Although complaints about Firefox's quick killing of hung plug-ins were not limited to FarmVille, that game was the squeaky wheel that got the update grease. 'A lot of people play FarmVille. To ignore those people for any length of time could have a significant effect on Firefox's share of browser users,' said Firefox user Jeff Rivett on Bugzilla Sunday. 'The problem already existed, but the perceived impact suddenly changed, giving it a much higher priority.'"

13 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. So much for the idea.... by HerculesMO · · Score: 5, Funny

    That Firefox users were smarter internet users.

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    The price is always right if someone else is paying.
    1. Re:So much for the idea.... by DIplomatic · · Score: 5, Interesting

      That Firefox users were smarter internet users.

      No, see a couple of years ago the smarter internet users started installing Firefox for their computer-illiterate friends and family to get them away from IE.
      THOSE are the type of people that play FarmVille.

    2. Re:So much for the idea.... by hairyfeet · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually those of use that recommend FF are more sophisticated, but those we recommend it to may not be. Plus you have to realize Farmville is like catnip to females. Don't ask me why, but I haven't seen a game so many females play since the original Age of Empires. Even my GF who frankly thinks games are a waste of time ended up hooked on Farmville and that treasure hunting game they have on FB.

      So like many other times in life we simply have to put up with it because the females love it, kinda like those God Awful "relationship" movies, AKA chick flicks. Why we can't teach the female population the artistic merits of big guns, huge explosions, and tons of CGI? It is a riddle for the ages my friend, a riddle for the ages.

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      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    3. Re:So much for the idea.... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The farmville players can be intelligent people

      Citation needed.

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      You are welcome on my lawn.
  2. Oblig... by snowraver1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    people playing FarmVille on Facebook complained that their browser was shutting down the game.

    "It's a *Feature*.

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    1. Re:Oblig... by Mr.+Freeman · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "Firefox quite often complains about various security problems with Zynga games"

      That's because zynga games are quite often malware in disguise. It's probably something to do with zynga's sloppy coding combined with the fact that their applications all try to push their advertising crap onto your machine in a covert way. Firefox is working as intended.

      I realize that you aren't complaining here, but your post almost reads like "My antivirus keeps trying to delete all these viruses I downloaded".

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      -1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
  3. Technology outcome by bonch · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Behold, decades of networking research and painstaking software development has brought us to this moment--watering tomatoes on a website.

    1. Re:Technology outcome by Trepidity · · Score: 5, Insightful

      As someone who spent quite a bit of time tending a virtual lemonade stand on an Apple ][, I'd have to say this isn't a new trend!

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      10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
    2. Re:Technology outcome by eastlight_jim · · Score: 5, Informative

      I assume that you've seen the Farmville parody video that's been circulating for a while. Definitely worth checking out if you've got a couple of spare minutes. Had me in stitches.

  4. Also affects Flash developers by josath · · Score: 5, Informative

    The other annoying thing about this "hung plugin detector"? It counts a Flash plugin paused for debugging (so you can look at the call stack, step through code, etc) as hung. For weeks I've been cursing Flash for always crashing in Firefox, because when Firefox kills the plugin, it displays the same generic message as if the plugin has actually crashed. Only recently did I find out that Firefox is the real cause of my pain, not Adobe!

    I wish they had done it like Chrome, or like Firefox already does with JS, where instead it pops up a little dialog telling you that the plugin is unresponsive, and would you like to kill it? Seems very suspicious, I wonder if there's someone at Mozilla with an anti-Flash agenda that wants to make Flash look more unstable than it really is?

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    sig? uhh, umm, ok
    1. Re:Also affects Flash developers by josath · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's not crap :(

      Some types of complex applications are just not possible in HTML5, and even if they were, wouldn't be available to 50%+ of our users (eg people using IE). So the only solution if we want to get our product to market today, is to use Flash. Believe me, I hate Flash ad banners and crappy Flash navigation websites as much as the next guy. But when you're doing an advance online collaboration application, your only choices are pretty much Java, Silverlight, or Flash. And for various reasons, Flash sucks the least out of all three of them.

      When HTML5 is sufficient and has the marketshare to do what we want, I'll be right up there with RMS trying to port my apps to it, but it's just not the reality today.


      tl;dr; sorry for feeding the trolls.

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      sig? uhh, umm, ok
    2. Re:Also affects Flash developers by tepples · · Score: 5, Informative

      aren't services like Google Wave written without Flash, just loads of Javascript?

      What is the counterpart to HTML5 <canvas>, HTML5 local storage, HTML5 page manifests, HTML5 new <input type=> values, etc. in Internet Explorer 7 and 8? And in JavaScript, how do you ask the user's permission to turn on the computer's webcam (if present) and then send the video stream to the server?

  5. No Bug, Artificial Intelligence at work. by rockhopjohn · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't think that was a bug, looks like more of a sign of AI on the browser's part.