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===Critical reception===
===Critical reception===
In a December 2010 interview with ''[[Gamasutra]]'', game designer Jonathan Blow criticized ''FarmVille'' for being designed to create an atmosphere of negativity, requiring an unprecedented commitment to the game, and encouraging users to exploit their friends.<ref name="parkin">{{cite web|last=Parkin|first=Simon|title=Catching up with Jonathan Blow|url=http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6224/catching_up_with_jonathan_blow.php?page=3|work=Gamasutra|accessdate=9 December 2010|page=3|date=2010-12-06}}</ref>
In a December 2010 interview with ''[[Gamasutra]]'', game designer Jonathan Blow criticized ''FarmVille'' for being designed to create an atmosphere of negativity, requiring an unprecedented commitment to the game, and encouraging users to exploit their friends.<ref name="parkin">{{cite web|last=Parkin|first=Simon|title=Catching up with Jonathan Blow|url=http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature Additionally, "farmers" such as Theodore Knust of Iowa, began to view themselves as farmers, despite their homes being located in suburban locations.[http://www.farmerted.com www.farmerted.com] /6224/catching_up_with_jonathan_blow.php?page=3|work=Gamasutra|accessdate=9 December 2010|page=3|date=2010-12-06}}</ref


==Awards==
==Awards==

Revision as of 20:40, 14 December 2010

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FarmVille
Developer(s)Zynga
Platform(s)Internet, iOS
ReleaseInternet
Friday, June 19, 2009[1]
iOS
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Genre(s)Simulation, RPG
Mode(s)Single-player with multiplayer interaction
This article is about the real-time farm simulation. For geographic locations, see Farmville (disambiguation).

FarmVille is a real-time farm simulation game developed by Zynga, available as an application on the social-networking website Facebook and as an App on the Apple iPhone. The game allows members of Facebook to manage a virtual farm by plowing land, planting, growing and harvesting virtual crops, harvesting trees and bushes, and by raising livestock.[2] FarmVille started as a clone of the popular Farm Town, which also on Facebook in June 2009,[3][4] but has since grown to be the social network's most popular application, with over 62 million active users and over 24.6 million Facebook application fans as of September 2010.[5] Ten percent of all Facebook users play it.[6][7] Despite this, Farmville is still classed by Zynga as being in a "Beta Testing Stage", with "all of [their] players ... currently considered Testers."

On February 4, 2010, Microsoft's MSN Games also launched FarmVille on its website,[8][9] requiring a Facebook account but not a Windows Live ID in order to play the game. On June 7, 2010, at Apple's WWDC, the CEO of Zynga announced that they were porting FarmVille for the Flash-less iOS platform.[10] It was later released on June 23, 2010 for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

Gameplay

One player's customised farm.

Upon beginning a farm, the player first creates a customizable avatar which may be changed at any point.[11] The player begins with an empty farm and a fixed starting amount of "farm coins", the primary currency in the game. Players also earn XP (experience points) for performing certain actions in the game such as plowing land or buying items. At certain XP benchmarks, the player's level rises. As the player obtains more items and progresses through levels, crops and animals become available to them via the "market" where items can be purchased using either farm coins or "farm cash". Farm cash is earned by leveling up, completing offers or microtransactions.

Crops

The main way a player earns farm coins is through harvesting of crops. The player does this by paying coins for plowing a unit of land and for planting crops, such as tomatoes on it, finally harvesting them after a certain amount of time has elapsed. The amount of time it takes for it to mature and how much money it yields when harvested is dependent on the crop planted and is noted on its entry in the "market" dialog[12]. They will wilt, or become worth nothing after one and one half times the time it takes to mature has elapsed. However, a player can use farm cash to purchase an "unwither" to rejuvenate the crops or can use a biplane with "instant grow" to cause crops to be immediately available for harvest. Although the biplane can be purchased with coins, this special feature is only available for farm cash. As a player levels up more, crops with a higher payoff and economy will become available.

Livestock and other plants

A player may also buy or receive from friends livestock and trees or bushes, such as cherry trees or chickens, which do not wither but instead become ready for harvest for preset amounts of money a set amount of time from their last harvest.

Social interaction

Like most Zynga games, FarmVille incorporates the social networking aspect of Facebook into many areas of gameplay. Players may invite their friends to be their neighbors, allowing them to perform five actions on each other's farms per day by "visiting" it. Neighbors may also send gifts and supplies to each other, complete specialized tasks together for rewards, and join "co-ops" - joint efforts to grow a certain amount of certain crops.

Gifts

Neighbors may also send gifts to each other in the form of mystery gifts with expensive, but random items, special deliveries with building supplies, or by choosing a particular item to send. They cost the sending user nothing.

Controversy

Accused scamming

FarmVille had offered users "farm cash" for completing various advertising surveys or signing up for services: for instance, the player would get some virtual currency for signing up for Netflix. However, FarmVille has been accused of scamming its users through misleading offers, such as filling in bogus survey or IQ tests which in fact subscribe the users to an unwanted service which appears on their phone bill or sending them advertisements through email.[13][14] In a video posted November 9, 2009, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus says "I did every horrible thing in the book too, just to get revenues right away. I mean we gave our users poker chips if they downloaded this Zwinky toolbar which was like, I don't know, I downloaded it once and couldn't get rid of it," in regard to criticism about business practices.[15] Michael Arrington of TechCrunch accused Facebook of allowing Zynga's FarmVille to continue these practices because a great deal of the money it gets from such leads is reinvested in ads inside the Facebook network.[14] In response to this negative publicity, Zynga removed all virtual cash offers on 8 November 2009 only on those pages on the main farmville.com website, but at least since July 12, 2010, farmville.com has still offered its virtual cash.[16] Players accessing the game from within Facebook also may see these offers.

More recently, Zynga has been accused of sharing information with advertisers and other internet tracking companies about their users, however, Zynga had denied these accusations.[17][18]

Originality

FarmVille has also been criticized for being "almost an exact duplicate" of its previously released competitor Farm Town.[19]

Farmville runs so-called in-game ad campaigns where users can visit another company's farm and/or buy or receive items with their logo and colors. For example, recently (as of October 7, 2010), users could get free McDonalds hot air balloons, McCafe products, and the ability to visit McDonalds' farm.[20][21][22] Farmville also offers engagement advertising where users can interact with a brand in exchange for free farm cash through an ad platform called SVnetwork[23]

Addiction

On October 27, 2010, a mother in Jacksonville, Florida, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the January death of her 3-month-old boy. The woman told investigators that she was playing Farmville and the baby would not stop crying. She told investigators that she shook her son, smoked a cigarette "to compose herself," and then shook him again. The child died from shaken baby syndrome.[24][25]

Critical reception

In a December 2010 interview with Gamasutra, game designer Jonathan Blow criticized FarmVille for being designed to create an atmosphere of negativity, requiring an unprecedented commitment to the game, and encouraging users to exploit their friends.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

See also

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References

  1. ^ "Zynga's FarmVille Becomes Largest and Fastest Growing Social Game Ever" (Press release). Market Watch. August 27, 2009. Retrieved October 11, 2009.
  2. ^ "Facebook farmers want India flag". BBC. October 9, 2009. Retrieved October 11, 2009.
  3. ^ Gardner, Jasmine (September 29, 2009). "Futurology: FarmVille on Facebook". London Today. Retrieved October 11, 2009.
  4. ^ "Zynga Launches "FarmVille". Does it Look Familiar?". All Facebook. June 22, 2009. Retrieved November 3, 2009.
  5. ^ "Facebook's Farmville Application Page". Facebook. July 22, 2010. Retrieved July 22, 2010.
  6. ^ Walker, Tim (February 22, 2010). "Welcome to FarmVille: Population 80 million". The Independent. London. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
  7. ^ Peretti, Jacques (March 6, 2010). "Modern Warfare 2 is all very well, but give me indie gaming". The Guardian. London. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
  8. ^ "Zynga's 'FarmVille' Facebook Game Debuts on MSN Site". Bloomberg. February 5, 2010. Retrieved February 4, 2010.
  9. ^ Farmville
  10. ^ "Farmville Coming To The iPhone In June". TechCrunch. June 7, 2010. Retrieved 2010-06-07.
  11. ^ "FarmVille Wiki".
  12. ^ "How long does it take for a crop to wither?". Zynga. 2009-10-01. Retrieved 2009-10-28.
  13. ^ "Are You Getting Scammed by Facebook Games?", Time, November 6, 2009
  14. ^ a b Arrington, Michael (October 31, 2009). "Scamville: The Social Gaming Ecosystem Of Hell". The Washington Post.
  15. ^ Michael Arrington (6 November 2009). "Zynga CEO Mark Pincus: "I Did Every Horrible Thing In The Book Just To Get Revenues"". Techcrunch. Retrieved 14 March 2009.
  16. ^ Zynga To Remove All In Game Offers
  17. ^ http://www.gmanews.tv/story/204155/farmville-creator-zynga-faces-privacy-breach-lawsuit
  18. ^ http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9191662/Facebook_battles_another_privacy_firestorm
  19. ^ Zynga Launches "FarmVille". Does It Look Familiar? Nick O'Neill, June 22, 2009, www.allfacebook.com. Fetched from website April 6, 2010.
  20. ^ http://www.gamezebo.com/news/2010/10/07/mcdonalds-gets-down-farm-farmville-one-day-only
  21. ^ Bing Advertises On Farmville, Acquires 400,000 Facebook Fans In One Day
  22. ^ Olson, Elizabeth (15 July 2010). "ADVERTISING; For FarmVille Players, a Crop From a Real Organic Farm". The New York Times. p. 3. Retrieved 29 October 2010.
  23. ^ Zynga Grows One Thing Advertisers Want: Mass Reach. Advertising Age. October 25, 2010 http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=146670
  24. ^ Hunt, David: "Jacksonville mom shakes baby for interrupting Farmville, pleads guilty to murder" Florida Times-Union, October 27, 2010
  25. ^ Caulfield, Philip (October 28th 2010). "Florida mom Alexandra Tobias pleads guilty to murdering baby for crying during her FarmVille game". Daily News. Retrieved 29 October 2010. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links


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