I’m not always the first person to catch on to things. So when my friend said I should be on the social-gaming bandwagon I rolled my eyes. He said “it’s all the rage right now”. Yeah, I’ve seen those annoying status doo-hickey’s pop up on Facebook. Heck, I am still not even sure what to do with that beast except for share my photos and document odd things my four year old says.

When I got news he was going to work at Playdom I decided to give social-gaming a try. According to an ad on Facebook Zynga’s “Farmville” is the most popular game out right now. That would be perfect, let’s start there! Now that I’m 4 weeks, 24 levels and more than 17 thousand “experience points” into it I think a summary should is ready.

I’m all for games and I think this is a pretty cool concept. Not only do I get to grow plants, trees and raise animals but I get to buy tractors and buildings. Oh, oh… and I get to help out my “neighbors” who are my Facebook friends that are also playing the same game. Totally get the “social-gaming” now. Just plant your seeds and come back in a few hours to harvest the crops. Great fun!

I’ve grown pumpkins, grapes and Aloe Vera plants and even created a nerd spreadsheet to help determine the best value for the amount of time I was prepared to plant things for. Seriously, check it out:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tIZRzmUGnTyMQQ4SYosTRuQ&output=html

As my farm grew and my wallet got fatter I began to gain a sense of accomplishment. I was quickly rising up the ladder of farmers with a respectable level. There were a few things that stood out to me that ultimately led to me “cropping” the word “DONE” in my plots of land:

1. I was clicking an awful lot. Seriously, my plots were 18×14, which equals a lot of clicks to harvest, plot and then seed each time.
2. I wasn’t going to spend money on the tools that would make it easier. Zynga does a great job of making this tempting but I just wasn’t invested into the game enough to fall prey.
3. Some of my “neighbors” had levels so far ahead of me that I had no patience in trying to catch up. I ended up getting within 5 of my sister but that leads me to my final and most important point,
4. The rush for playing this game was clearly over. I still had 30 or so pending requests from people that had tried it and let it go. Even the people that finally added me to their “neighbor” list had given up on the game for the most part. A social game has to to have people to work. While I puttered along with a few interactions it wasn’t enough to keep me coming back for more.

My first taste of social-gaming was interesting but not enough to make me go crazy. I’ll try another Zynga game “Cafe World” and actually try a game from my friends company, Playdom, that he said is the most popular, “Social City”.

Farmville was a fun idea but ultimately lacked the staying power to keep me around.

cheat · farmville · game · playdom · review · social game · social gaming · zynga