FarmVille, an online game that lets users manage virtual farms, is the fastest-growing Facebook application in the history of the social networking site. And that is saying a lot. It is so popular that educators say it’s becoming a classroom distraction because kids won’t stop playing it.
Who would think that a game where you can buy your own pigs and watch your crops grow would have an attraction for kids in an online world? Is this some kind of “back to the basics” thing in a recession?
The New York Times explained the FarmVille fascination:
The game, which is similar to Second Life, a 3-D virtual community, starts with players getting property and seeds. Players can harvest and sell their crops, and they sometimes get a little nutty in the process. The Times reported:
“The game seems to have mesmerized people from all walks of life. Every night for the last two weeks, Jil Wrinkle, a 40-year-old medical transcriber in the Philippines, has set his alarm for 1:30 a.m., when he will wake up, roll over and harvest his blueberries.
The San Fransisco Chronicle reported on Zynga, the San Fransisco-based developer of Farmville:
“When it launched June 19, FarmVille picked up 25,000 users in its first day, according to Mark Skaggs, head of the game’s development team. Its cute, G-rated content now draws 21 million users daily and 60 million monthly worldwide.
“Skaggs believes the attraction is universal: ‘It’s a theme that everyone knows worldwide. And it’s simple to play,’ he says, citing the Zen-like experience of planting plots. Still, the demands of a virtual farm shouldn’t be taken lightly. Harvest times are accelerated for cyberspace: Strawberries are ready to pick in four hours, a pumpkin in eight. Forget to harvest, the crop withers and you’re out of luck.”
You have to wonder how long it will take for real farm groups to get hooked on stuff like this. For that matter, I would think animal rights groups would be attracted to these kinds of games, too.
Is there an opportunity to use these games to teach people how farms work? I would like to see the FarmVille prices fluctuate when a rumor begins about the spread of some disease like swine flu, or when a major hailstorm wipes out corn crops.
