Bear
In need of a redesign since 2011.

Monday 21 December 2009

Farmville

Look, it's not my fault ok?

I am suitably ashamed of myself.

Let me explain from the beginning.

I'm much more into twitter than facebook, so some trends just pass me by. Farmville was one of these. I was aware of its existence, and vaguely knew what it was - a rubbish, farming-related version of the Sims - but I had absolutely no interest in it. Rightly so. ('Scuse me, I need to collect the eggs.) But a couple of months ago, all that changed forever...

My friend Helen from university is great. She's fun, intelligent, and aside from a bizarre love for Twilight (more about that another time), she's got great taste; so when she and I went to the library to 'work' - i.e. check facebook and twitter respectively - I was intrigued by seeing her play Farmville.

The colours were so bright, and the simple pleasure of clicking on cartoonish shapes to make them do things appealed to me. It still does, in fact. It's the middle of winter; I'll take colour where I can get it. So, I gave it a go. Purely for research purposes, or so I told myself - I'd find out what all the fuss is about, then move on to worthier pastures. (Just a sec, I'm planting artichokes.) I made my own little farm, two squares by two. I planted and sowed and harvested, bought and sold and milked; eventually reaching the point where I could only progress by adding people as neighbours.

I looked at the list of my facebook friends with farms, and in that moment, some final shred of dignity flailed, coughed, and gave up entirely. I added them. That was weeks ago now, and my little farm is prospering with the help of people I haven't spoken to in years. My news feed is an endless list of my 'achievements', requests and demands, all automatically generated by the game. I can only imagine how annoying that must be! (Excuse me, I just need to go harvest my wheat.)

Some people might think that it's too time-absorbing, but I don't find that- (hang on, my cow needs milking.)

I don't think that it- (Ooh! My apple tree's ripe)

It's not- (Hold on while I fertilize someone's peppers)

(Wait -


20 comments:

  1. Yay! Anna's Back!
    Back home/back on the island/back on farmville/back on the blog!

    Another few of these and you could become almost daily again.

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  2. Missed you!

    I refuse to play Farmville. I got into Restaurant City (same concept, but with a restaurant) and that's enough for me. :)

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  3. Thank you both! And thanks to Judi, Jenny and Katy who pulled me aside last night to have a quiet word about my lack of updates X) I'll try harder!

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  4. Hurrah! She has updated! Nice to read your philosophising on life, the universe and Farmville. We have missed you! *huggles Anna and doesn't let her go*

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  5. is it bad that I'm not only pleased that you've blogged but that you've joined farmville too (mostly because you are now my neighbour hehe!)

    xx

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  6. Great post! I love your writing and was wondering when you would post again. The game sounds like World of Warcraft in that it makes demands, almost like second job that doesn't pay...actually that you have to pay them for! The madness THE MADNESS!!!

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  7. Beware of scams on Farmville and similar games. sources:


    http://farmvillefreak.com/farmville-tips-cheats-tricks/beware-of-farmville-scams

    http://blogs.computerworld.com/15020/farmville_cheats_cash_from_users_facebook_scam_strategy_guide

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  8. Thanks Phil! It is demanding, but fortunately I haven't sunk a single penny into it. Not everyone's that sensible, and some people spend ludicrous amounts on their fictional farms.

    Same reason I've never tried Wow. I'm very reluctant to spend money on games online.

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  9. FarmTown, FarmVille, Cafe World, Resturant City... i've played them all and got addicted to each one...

    Cafe World is my crack at the moment :D FarmTown is much better than farmville btw :P haha

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  10. The thing I REALLLLLY hate about Farmville is that in all the retarded, manipulative spam it throws onto Facebook, it uses "their" as a gender neutral pronoun, which pisses me off. "Hir" is perfectly acceptable, "their" sounds utterly sickening.

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  11. HOORAY! figured out how to block it. So long FV!

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  12. How can i find you on facebook ?

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  13. Sorry Paresh, I don't add strangers on facebook, but you're quite welcome to follow me on Twitter. (Link's top left)

    And Gav, 'their' is perfectly acceptable as a gender-neutral pronoun. 'Hir' just sounds stupid! OH NO WILL THIS END OUR LOVE

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  14. stranger :(
    and i feel like i know you for years !
    anyway you've read my diary, isn't that enough to know me ?
    check my facebook profile then
    http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/Spidy.here?ref=profile

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  15. Sorry dude :( I've had to be a lot more strict about it lately, and have even unfriended a few people... I hope they don't take offence!

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  16. Its ok :) btw you are not writing much after returning frm hibernation ?

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  17. I will! I promise. I'll have a new post up tomorrow if not sooner. x

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  18. you can comment on my blog when you are not writing yours :)

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  19. Hir sounds like what I want to do when I hear it... Their is old english, but doesn't make me stumble when I read it. So hooray for the old classics!

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  20. Haha!! I love it!! Thank you so much for writing this post (sorry I'm about a year late coming to it) because exactly the same happened to me. "As IF I'm going to play that" I said to myself, until I saw the boyfriend playing it one morning and was like "What are they? Strawberries?"

    And a few months and 33 levels later, I'm still there...

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