The Seven Deadly Sins of Farmville (Why you need to stop playing)
If you are looking for reasons or motivations to leave the game, I've compiled the seven deadly sins of Farmville.
1. Never ends.
Like a passage from the Bible, Farmville is a world without end. It keeps on going. We humans are trained for things to have a beginning, middle and an end. FarmVille does away with that. You farm will sit there forever until you come back or don't. If your friends have been playing regularly, you can never catch up. There are no rules. Farmville is the Winchester Widow Mansion of games....you just keep on building
2. It doesn't work.
We continually ask our Facebook fans questions about their favorite games. The number one issue they have is that the games simply fail consistantly. Oh did an hour of harvesting? Game disconnects. Just bought something you saved up for? Game doesn't load. Need to log in to save withered crops? Game takes ten minutes to load, Stories like this are consistant for all players and are a never ending source of frustration and anger for poor Sally farmer.
3. My friends hate me.
Farmville forces you to share game events, ask for gifts and generally annoy all your friends to progress. Its annoying for your none FarmVille players. If you don't know it now, I'm going to tell you, your non-farming friends hate you for it. I'm willing to bet that many a family dinner will end up in Farmville related fights over Aunt Gertrudes constant brown cow requests.
4. Its not good for you.
Gaming is supposed to be a relaxing diversion. For most it is, but for some it can be an incidious tenticle down the path of addiction. Its been written that some online game players will play a single game for 40-50 hours a week. These folks are putting relationships, health and happiness in jeapordy for time on the farm. In a recent study, 20% of game players admitted they were addicted. Think Zynga is going to pick up the bill for that?
5. Procrastination
We are in a bit of a transitional period in our economy. People are losing jobs, working less hours or simply have given up looking for work. FarmVille isn't helping! Facebook games are an easy diversion from the real work you need to do. Instead of spending ten hours a week on FarmVille, spend ten hours learning new computer skills, you won't be out of work for long.
6. Its work!
Sure its a diversion but doing well and making your farm look nice takes a ton of work. Just like a real farm players check their clocks and wake up early just to harvest their fake crops. Where is the fun in having an appointment with a game? A cottage industry of tools for players have cropped up to manage farmtime. What? I need to manage my time in a game? Run that by me again? Why am I playing this, sounds like work to me.
7. Reinforces our materialism and wants of things we don't have.
Ok, its a bit of a political statement but so what! FarmVille reinforces the feelings of what we don't have. You go through the items and see this or that gorgeous item that will make farming easier and it costs real money. Its just like walking past the Ferrari in the car lot. These items pull at our desires wants and needs. We feel like we're less of a farmer because we don't have this or can't afford that. We go "visit" our friends farms and we see they have to latest shed or crop duster and we can't help but feel more envy. FarmVille is purposfully (I believe) playing on our American materialism. The want and need of things we don't have. Things that when we get, don't really do that much. We just want the next shiny object. Ever been to a real farm? All it has is a house, a barm and maybe a shed. That's the real deal.
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