Farmville: A Speculative Appreciation (?)

Farmville – A Speculative Appreciation (?)

Kartik KJ

22 Million!

That’s the number of people, according to the creators of the game, that log in at least once a day to check their farms and/or harvest it. No other game in the history of online gaming, has seen such adulation, admiration, and may I say, addiction. The thought behind this blog originated from two things – one, the incessant friends’ updates on FB which are all about Farmville, and the ensuing curiousity that lead me to reading an article online about Farmville that asked this question -

Has Farmville got anything to do with user’s inclination towards pastoral lives and is it serving “this” intrinsic need in the virtual world?

It has been ages since I saw most of my online friends so engaged in a game! What is it that pulls people towards Farmville? Why is it adding one millions new users per week? What makes people share passwords with friends while travelling just so that their virtual crop is harvested on time?

Farmville: Wow what a life!

Virtually, this game lets you be. Imagine taking a long drive to the countryside on a weekend to visit your farm. Guess who has the neighbouring farm – your best friend. The two of you work together, if you find a lonely cow, this friend or any of your other friends comes rushing in to help out the poor cow.

Zynga does a great job at communication, especially in Farmville. The finding of an ugly duckling, a sad cow et al, comes with a note that draws instant sympathy for the cutely sad looking animal farm. And when you see a friend finding such a thing and needing help – you help on two counts – the general act of kindness to the poor animal, and of course, helping your friend.

Reality check?

That’s Farmville for you – interestingly it takes away most of the pains of the arduous activity that farming is and makes it a joy to behold. The trying dependency on external factors like weather, the availability of water, the pains of actually sowing / waiting / harvesting, is all ‘taken care’ of. Farming, is a cakewalk and like everything else on Facebook, you get to flaunt your harvest to everyone you know.

I am more than inspired by the thought that so many of us - youngsters - are taking keen interest in farming/ nature. Or are we? How many of these ‘one million users per week’ game will actually look at farming – the real deal as something they would do? At least once per week? Per month? Year?

Conversely, equally exciting will it be, if real farmers networked like Farmville lets players do and help each other out. Wishful thinking, or simply – real world's no game.

I am all in appreciation of this game and think it has brought the gardener and farmer alive in all of us. Personally, I think the game can also be great tool to teach primary school children the knick knacks of farming – if used intelligently. At least in this, I would see some returns. For now, I wonder how much of this is passion and how much is obsession? One website observes that the obsession for online games could be comparable with that for drugs (Quote: Obsessive gameplay activates the same pathways as the drug addictive pathways, specifically the release of dopamine in the reward pathways.). No no.. I do not expect my dear friends to kill me or loot a shop to afford Farmville, but, I am sure some may already want to kill me for writing such a strong blog about it..

Cutting the long story short, while Farmville is undeniably a very involving game, let us not forget to also ‘get real’ and let it remain a game - not an obsession. Learn from what this game teaches us and apply them in real life. Let us center our conversation around ‘real people’, ‘real pets’, ‘real neighbours’ and see how it 'crops up'? And as you might agree now, thanks to Farmville, reaping the harvest is the most pleasant feeling in the world.