In this age of instant messaging, Bluetooth, super high speed internet, and the idea of all things immediate, comes the phenomenon of Facebook. Gone are the days of writing long letters to lost friends or calling their childhood homes to find them. Making a connection is easier than ever. Simply join, post and search. Presto! Instant re-connections.

Now this fast paced world has infiltrated itself upon the honorable career of farming. Well, not real farming, but the virtual kind. Now you can grow seeds in hours, harvest in days and reap the monetary benefits immediately. Welcome to Farmville! Small town life on the small screen.

Farmville is a community driven game accessed through Facebook. It’s gratification is addicting. You create an avatar farmer to represent you (and to work really hard for you!) on your farm. You’re given a small plot of land and the tools to plow and plant your crops. Available also are trees, animals, farm buildings and decorations. Everything you need to build your domestic, rural dream.

Plants are grown in hours or days and harvested for “cash”. The cows are milked, the sheep shorn, and the apples picked off the trees all for money. Oh goodie! I can buy more seeds! I can expand my plot! But be forewarned…better check in a few times a day or your “ready to be harvested” crops will wilt and die. Money lost!

The most important aspect of Farmville is the need for neighbors. Like real life, you cannot get by on your own. Your neighbors will help you weed your land, give you gifts of trees or livestock (or virtually alive-livestock) and allow you to move up in the Farmville world. Dis your neighbors and you will not be rewarded! So there it is again, the instant fulfillment of connecting with friends far away.

For someone like me who is not blessed with the greenest of thumbs, Farmville allows me to be a great farmer. It may not be real life, but surreal life is a lot of fun to be a part of. Now excuse me, but I must go harvest my wheat.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 23rd, 2009 at 6:25 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.