by Billy Findley, Copy Editor
I’m not much of a computer person. I’m not much of a videogame player either. However, I will be the first to admit that there are times in our 21st century lives when the perpetual influx, or should I say affliction, of online gaming hits home so hard that we just cannot ignore its ominous beckoning. It all came to a climax in my life when my friends on Facebook started sending me “Will you be my neighbor,” notifications by the dozen.
If you have a Facebook account, you are probably aware that this is the notification inviting you to join Zynga’s ever-so-popular rural craze, Farmville, a game that has taken many a Bryan student by storm. Now I suppose there are students like me out there who would say they don’t give a flipping hoot about those 50 million unnecessary Facebook applications, but what puzzles me is half my invites are coming from precisely those kinds of people, the not-so-into-gaming crowd.
Sophomore Danene Bottiaux is one of those students who claims to not be into the Facebook games, but she will admit to currently being hooked on Farmville.
“I usually ignore Facebook applications because I think they’re for dorks,” Bottiaux says. “Farmville is not for dorks.”
Bottiaux says she checks her farm three times a day. She has to or she might not produce a successful harvest.
You see, Farmville is a lesson in time management and responsibility, qualities a lot of college students are trying to hone. The game is simple: you the farmer are given an allotment of virtual money and a plot of land on which you will need to plant crops and harvest them when the time is right. Reap enough profit from harvest and you will receive opportunities to expand your farm and plant more crops.
Eventually, players can reach levels where they can purchase animals, buildings and all sorts of other farm accessories for their land. According to Bottiaux, it’s fun to be rewarded for your hard labor and it’s also fun to decorate your farm.
But psychological rewards aren’t the only enchanting aspect of the game. According to sophomore Justin Morton, there’s also a community-building aspect as you are encouraged to invite your Facebook friends to be your neighbors. The neighbors, in turn, will trade products with you and help keep your farm clean while you’re gone.
“I like videogames, but I’m picky about the games I like,” Morton says. “Farmville just gives you something fun to do with your friends.”
However, despite these exciting, not to mention addicting, gaming features, there may be a dark side to this farming fantasy as well. For some people, as the game progresses, the farming becomes less of a game and more of a chore. According to freshman Kelly Findley, after he built a large enough farm, managing it began to take too much time.
“It takes over your life,” Findley says.
Findley, like most new participants of the farm phenomenon, would check his farm up to three times a day, usually spending hours on it. However, as time went on, Findley says farming became too much of a hassle and he doesn’t get on any more.
Game creating is big business. According to statistics from Zynga Incorporated, as of June 2009, Farmville was accumulating over 500,000 new users a day.
For the gamers who are really into the experience, Zynga has created the option for gamers to purchase more virtual money through their Pay Pal accounts, according to Morton.
Morton says he doesn’t think he will ever take the Farmville experience that far.
“I know my personality, and I know it will get old soon,” Morton says.
Well, this journalist certainly knows his personality and knows he doesn’t feel like checking on his virtual tomatoes three times a day to begin with. But, for the many Bryan students, and all the other people, who swear they will never join such a mindless endeavor as online gaming, I won’t be surprised if you’re the next friend on my Facebook cordially inviting me to be your neighbor.