Virtual Farming Experience

 

(Farmville Farm Layout/ http://mentalfloss.com/article/25047/why-do-people-play-farmville)

         

Virtual Farming Experience

         For my farm field trip I was limited in my options so I decided to download the app Farmville and play the game for a week. Now I am not interested in video games so this was a new experience for me. This game isn't set up to be very competitive, and there isn't necessarily a winner in the end. The game consists of starting a farm and continue to grow it, as you grow it you earn the privilege of planting more variety of crops. Like all apps you can pay to grow quicker and the produce more, literal money that is, but that was definitely something that I was going to avoid.
         I was given a small plot to start my farm. I was aloud to plant wheat with a small amount of money that was given to me for starting, and when it was harvested it was worth one point for each plot. It took a couple hours to grow, I didn't have to water or weed, but if I didn't return to the app "in-time" my crops would go bad. I collected about nine points the first harvest. That made it possible to plant wheat again and collect another nine points when it was harvested, with a click, or to by more plots to plant in. I choose to continue to plant in my same plots until I could afford to expand.
          My farm was expanding slowly it seemed so I wanted to figure out a way to receive more points for all of my hard work, well my time staring at my ipad. I grew my farm until it had tripled in size and then more seed choices became available to me. It cost more to plant them, but the return was higher. So I did I mixture of crops to earn more points. The game continues like this probably forever. I don't think it was realistic. However, the concept of working and growing slowly until you have enough saved up is a good business principle.
          The product of this game were "achievements" that could be shared on different social media outlets so that your friends could see how you were spending your time. This was not attractive to me so I didn't use this feature. The title of the game, Farmville, did not seem to fit the idea of a village of farmers. There wasn't any interaction between "farmers" like tying to buy the same plot of land for example. The interaction came in asking "friends" on social media for clicks essentially so that you could advance even faster.
          The ambience of Farmville is calming. You get to relax while you labor in a field. The app features and visual appearance is very clean, organized, and nothing like a real working farm. The application is attractive to all ages.  Young kids can easily play because reading skills are not required, elderly can play it to pass the time. That was the hardest thing for me. I felt like I was spending so much time "farming". I am sure these feelings are similar to what an actual farmer feels, but for different reasons.
          I appreciated a blog I found called Mental Floss. While this topic was quite old, it was still interesting to see his perspective of the game, which was a lot like mine, but mostly how his readers responded to the post. One follower, wordkyle, said:

                    "Farmville is an escapist activity that evokes satisfaction by evoking a false sense of productivity" (Higgins).

          I agree, this is exactly what the game does for its fans. With this false sense of working, players feel accomplished. Now, nothing was done in reality, but this virtual reality is addicting to some people. I was glad when I could delete the game and not ever have to waste time like that again. Obviously I did not advance very far due to the short amount of time. Farming takes a lot of time and patience though, so this constant feeling of waiting is probably popular with those that work in this industry. 

 

 

 Farmville. Computer Software. Apple App Store. Zynga. Web. 3 Oct. 2016.

Higgins, Chris. "Why Do People Play Farmville?" Mental Floss. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2016.