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[[Image:Farmville.png|thumb|250px|right|One player's customised farm.]]
[[Image:Farmville.png|thumb|250px|right|One player's customised farm.]]
[[Image:GaGaVille.png|thumb|250px|right|"GagaVille" promotion for [[Lady Gaga|Lady GaGa]]'s album "[[Born This Way]]".
Upon beginning a farm, the player first creates a customizable avatar which may be changed at any point.<ref name="FarmVille wiki" /> 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|crops]] and [[#Livestock and other plants|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 or completing offers, or purchased for real money.
Upon beginning a farm, the player first creates a customizable avatar which may be changed at any point.<ref name="FarmVille wiki" /> 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|crops]] and [[#Livestock and other plants|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 or completing offers, or purchased for real money.


Revision as of 09:51, 24 May 2011

This article is about the real-time farm simulation. For geographic locations, see Farmville (disambiguation).

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FarmVille
Developer(s)Zynga
Platform(s)Adobe Flash, iOS
ReleaseFacebook
Friday, June 19, 2009[1]
iOS
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Genre(s)Simulation, RPG
Mode(s)Single-player with multiplayer interaction

FarmVille is a farming social network game developed by Zynga. It is available 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 featured 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]

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.

[[Image:GaGaVille.png|thumb|250px|right|"GagaVille" promotion for Lady GaGa's album "Born This Way". 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 or completing offers, or purchased for real money.

Crops

The main way a player earns farm coins is through harvesting of crops or visiting their neighbors. 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 a crop to mature, and how much money a crop yields when harvested, is dependent on the crop planted and is noted on its entry in the "market" dialog.[12] They will wither, or they will be of no use when a crop-specific amount of time has elapsed, the amount of time being equal to 2.5 times the amount of time taken to grow the crop (for example, crops which take 8 hours to grow will wither after 2.5×8=20 hours. 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. Trees and livestock cannot die.

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.

Decorations

Decorations can be purchased in the market for coins or cash or can be sent in the form of free gifts.Decorations include many items like buildings, hay bales, fences, nutcrackers, gnomes, flags, topiaries, etc. There are sometimes limited edition items depending on the theme such as a Valentine's Day theme, halloween theme, winter theme, etc. Decorations also give experience points (xp) depending on the cost.

Farmville English Countryside

This expansion was rolled out in mid to late March 2011. It is a secondary farm, accessible from the user's own. At first, going to one would pause crop growth and benefits on the other. In response to fan communication, Zynga introduced the option to turn off pausing when traveling between the farms.[13] The English farm introduced sheep breeding. After certain tasks are completed, it can be utilized on the main farm.

Controversy

Originality

FarmVille has also been criticized for being "almost an exact duplicate" of its previously released competitor Farm Town.[14]

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.[15]

Advertisements

Farmville runs 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.[16][17][18] Farmville also offers engagement advertising where users can interact with a brand in exchange for free farm cash through an ad platform called SVnetwork[19]

Awards

FarmVille won an award at the Game Developer's Conference for the "Best New Social/Online Game" in 2010.[20]


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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. ^ http://blog.farmville.com/2011/04/how-to-turn-off-pausing.html
  14. ^ Zynga Launches "FarmVille". Does It Look Familiar? Nick O'Neill, June 22, 2009, www.allfacebook.com. Fetched from website April 6, 2010.
  15. ^ Parkin, Simon (2010-12-06). "Catching up with Jonathan Blow". Gamasutra. p. 3. Retrieved 9 December 2010.
  16. ^ McDonalds gets down on the farm with FarmVille for one day only | Gamezebo
  17. ^ Bing Advertises On Farmville, Acquires 400,000 Facebook Fans In One Day
  18. ^ 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.
  19. ^ Zynga Grows One Thing Advertisers Want: Mass Reach. Advertising Age. October 25, 2010 http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=146670
  20. ^ "Game Developers Choice Online Awards Archive 10th Annual GDCA". Retrieved 2010-12-08.


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