Monroe Library Blog

Monday, April 5, 2010

FarmVille: Do You Play?


When I first got a facebook account, I was inundated with a barrage of invitations that I received from friends to play online-virtual-social games. Truth be told, these invitations puzzled and annoyed me. I didn't know a thing about those games.

A recent article at CNN.com estimates that approximately 75 million people play FarmVille each month. Is it just me, or does that seem like a LOT of people?

Well, the invitations from friends continued to pour in and guess what? I succumbed, and I am now a faithful FarmVille player.

Each day I plant my own crops, fertilize my neighbors' crops, feed the neighbors' chickens, and send my neighbors virtual gifts. Some of these activities result in almost daily, multiple posts to my profile and my friends' homepages. If you're not into FV, these posts may annoy you. I'm sorry, but my FV neighbors love them!

Because of the many postings generated by FV and other social games, a facebook group was created and entitled "I don't care about your farm, or your fish, or your park, or your mafia!!!" According the the CNN.com article, the group once boasted of over 5 million members. I recently tried to access the groups profile, but I couldn't find it. Perhaps, the group members all started playing FarmVille and subsequently disbanded.

A recent study was cited in the Seattle PI and related information regarding library computer use. "A third of Americans 14 and older - about 77 million people - use public library computers..." At Sno-Isle Libraries, customers can enjoy up to two hours of computer time each day.

Hmmmm. I wonder how many of them play FarmVille. Do you?

12 comments:

  1. I LOOOOOVEEE FARMVILLE!! <3 :D

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  2. I hope people realize in Facebook there's a "hide" button to the right of messages. They can click when they see a Farmville (or Zoo or Mafia or Chef or whatever)posting that lets them hide messages from that application (as opposed to hiding messages from that person, which is also a Facebook option.) As an advid Farmer, I try to point this out whenever possible because I really don't want to annoy my city-slicker friends ;-)

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  3. How great would it be if only a fraction of those 75 million people would spend even a tiny portion of their Farmville hours connecting face-to-face with real live people in their community or neighborhood in order to actually make a contribution to something other than their computer screen!?!

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  4. My friends also inundated me with requests to play FV, and I immediately realized that I had been there done that as a child growing up in Texas. No more chickens! No more cows! No more FV!

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  5. My dad plays FarmVille ALL the time. I wish I was exaggerating, but I'm not. Everyday, he goes on Facebook to tend to his pixels. As some of you may know, there are only 70 levels to get to. Yes, my dad has reached level 70, and yes, he still plays. It consumes so much time and it's so annoying! My whole family wishes he would spend more time with us instead of his farm. He even talks about FarmVille all the time! If there's anything to learn from this, it's that using any kind of internet in moderation is the best way to go. If you don't, you'll end up like my dad, who has two teenaged daughters with whom he should be connecting.

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  6. Me no likey Farmville. I agree with Anonymous #4. I know people who spend their entire days on Farmville, living totally virtual lives. How do I know this...ah, their FB accounts tell the tale.

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  7. I am addicted, but I've set up my friends into different "accounts" (family, school, FarmVille). Now I only post FV 'stuff' to my FV neighbors who are wanting those messages. Use the message function next to 'publish' to edit who gets what.

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  8. Farmville is fun! I like to greet my farmville buddies with a howdy neighbor!

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  9. On no, trust me, that group is still alive and well. I've got friends who still join it.

    I'm with the person above. I got enough of the farm life as a child, and I DON'T need to get more of it online! I can understand why some people do it, but at the same time I find such application a bit ridiculous. If you are really interested in such things (except for Mafia), then go and do them in PERSON. You might find it a lot more rewarding, or find out you don't like these activites as much as you thought.

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  10. I love Farmville and everything, but I haven't been going on lately. I realized there's not much of a point to it! But I deal with all the posts, I mean, how hard is it to ignore one little update about someone's crops being fertilized?

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  11. I play FarmVille. I get a kick out of the pontificators and moralizers claiming it's evil or stupid or a waste of time. Seems to me posting an answer to a blog about something they disapprove of could also be considered stupid and a waste of time, yet there you are (and you know who you are, people), waggling your virtual fingers.

    As for me, I spend about 30-45 minutes each evening harvesting/planting and visiting my virtual neighbors. It's called "fun," not unlike playing solitaire or working on sudoku or a crossword puzzle, and it's how I "unwind" before I go to bed.

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  12. Yes I play farmville and I love it. Lately it does seem a bit slow which has been a little annoying. I have to admit I was one of those people that would get annoyed with all of the apps... until I started to play LOL. Now I try and snag as many gifts as I can. It is so much fun!

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