Days 4 and 5 of my time in Farmville have been eye-opening. Not only did I continue to add friends and harvest veggies, but I started to see why people can get addicted. Mighty addicted.
When the sun rose on Day 4, I had achieved level 7 and accrued over 3000 coins from harvests. Suddenly I had a lot of cash and no idea what to do with it. I began by plowing more fields and planting more veggies, naturally. White grapes became available so I began plopping those down, as well as raspberries and pumpkins. The pumpkins, raspberries, and rice all had decent turn-around times for harvesting (less than a day) so I was able to plant them and walk away knowing that I could reap the benefits later that evening.
I left the house around noon and had to run a few errands, not returning for about 8 hours. By then my pumpkins and raspberries were harvest-ready. I also was able to harvest some of the crops that had 2 days worth of growth time needed, so my fortunes were at a nice peak by then. I bought more land and plopped in more seeds.
Scouting around some of the other purchasable items that had opened up for me at level 8, I also decided to begin building a stable for the horse I had. Buying the stable foundation was no problem, but in order to complete it I would have to attain Farmville cash, part of the game’s dual funding system. Via a tab at the top of the page, I could either pay real cash to buy the fake greenbacks or gain levels, earning one FV dollar each time. This could take ages, but I wasn’t even going to think about putting down real money for this. I’ll wait, hoping someone can gift the required items to me later on.
Day 5 – While scouting around the neighbor list, I was able to perform some tasks to help out my friends. These tasks, such as scaring away crows or digging up weeds, earned a bit of FV coin and experience each time. I was also able to help fertilize my friends’ crops after completing some of these tasks. Fertilizing allows the crops (once harvested by my friends) to earn more experience points.
Suddenly, the game became this incredibly cooperative experience.
The point of Farmville isn’t so much to outgrow the competition, but to help it along. By helping my neighbors and friends, they in turn help me. The entire thing is part supportive and part extremely individualistic. It’s easy to remain a singular player, but when friends help out my farm becomes that much better. The more I play, the more my friends play, and the more we all get rewarded. And, the more we play again.
Is that the point of Farmville? Instead of competition, the idea is to help each other? Is Farmville the ultimate peace-maker?
No. Hell no. I still want more raspberries than my cousin.
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