While Day 1 was spent learning a bit about the game and setting up my farm, Days 2 & 3 were spent mostly growing crops and making friends.
When I logged on for Day 2 I had amassed around 700 coins, so promptly decided to plow and fallow some of my land. My strawberries, which take about 4 hours to grow and harvest, had become plump and red. The soy beans didn’t seem worth the hassle, though. For the length of time I had to wait to harvest the soy I could have done the same with several strawberry patches, and turned more of a profit. With the money I had, I planted pumpkins, eggplants and more wheat.
Day 3 saw me harvesting the strawberries and planting more pumpkins, although this time I decided to add in some squash for good measure. I had gotten to experience level 5 by then and the ability to plant squash had opened up for me, as well as several items for decoration and buildings. These, however, required that I have more than just coins. I needed Farmville cash, something that I had no idea how to get. Would I have to buy the cash? Sell the crops to get it? I had no idea.
One thing that Farmville doesn’t do all that clearly is the ability to allow someone to add friends (who are already playing Farmville) as neighbors. When I would click “Add Neighbor” at the bottom of the screen I would be asked to send invites to all of my Facebook friends. There was no list of those friends who were already playing the game, like there was during my time with Mafia Wars (Zynga’s other huge game). I had to hop into my Facebook notifications and see who was already playing, remembering to add them in via the invite after wards.
That all changed once I clicked on the “My Neighbors” tab at the top of the page. Here was the list I was looking for. Why wasn’t this integrated better into the icons at the bottom of the Farmville play screen? No idea. Regardless, I began adding neighbors. And adding. And adding. And… Wow, I never realized how many of my friends were playing Farmville, and at prolonged periods of time. Each person seemed to be at higher levels (25 and above) which meant that they had been playing consistently. Apparently this game is quite addicting to almost everyone I know.
On occasion I would have a notification pop up during play that informed me that someone –a Facebook friend who plays Farmville — needed their fields fertilized or to scare away crows. Two of the pop-ups from friends brought gifts: a horse and a bail of hay. I had no idea what to do with these yet, so I plopped my horse off to the side and the hay next to my trough of water.
At this point, I came to the conclusion that I have nothing to keep me motivated to play the game. With Mafia Wars I was able to be competitive with friends on a level I understood: fight battles to win money, buy equipment, and even travel to other cities for somewhat unique experiences. I felt like I was actually playing a game. Farmville has been around long enough where I expected it do be as creative as MW, yet to this point it felt like it was lacking any direction. It is EXTREMELY casual.
I still don’t know what the draw is, but perhaps the remaining 4 days will change that.
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