Facebook Farmville

Farmville is a wildly popular game developed by Zynga—there are currently over 67 million people playing it! Zynga bills itself as “connecting the world through games. . .the #1 provider of gaming experience on social networks, connecting you to your friends through word games, casino games, [and] role-playing games” (direction quotation from the official Farmville site on Facebook). Zynga also owns other popular games as Mafia Wars, Cafe World, and Yoville.

Farmville’s success is built on the game’s multifaceted nature; it appeals to many people for a variety of different reasons. The visuals of the game are very pleasing. Farmers can enjoy the spectacle of a vineyard of perfectly ripened grapes, blooming roses, or even a rice paddy! The game’s flexibility about the kind of crops you plant and how you organize them allows you to customize the game to your ideal farm. A multitude of decorations including colored hay bales and buildings bring out the creative side in most people—try making a picture or your initials in a field with the bales!

For people who are more interested in collecting, the wide variety of rare animals and items gives you the challenge of trying to collect them all. Zynga’s robust schedule allows you to be surprised by new events quite regularly, with coordinating new items. The Thanksgiving/Autumn event brought Wild Turkeys to collect—Winter so far has provided a Clumsy Reindeer entangled in Christmas lights. These frequent updates ensure that the player is never bored. Zynga also maintains a podcast and fan site for enthusiasts to receive the latest news—check in when you get a chance to see what changes are coming up in the game.

As a role playing game, Farmville provides you a way to explore your fantasies about being a successful farmer/entrepreneur. You only have a certain amount of resources to work with, and you need to figure out the best way to use them. For people who like the math of the game, there are endless charts and graphs that can be created to help you make your planting decisions. You have to figure out what the best possible crop is for the time you want to put in and the amount of money you can spend on seeds. It’s no simple feat to be able to get a return of several thousand coins—you have to plan it!

Farmville also provides you a way to interact with your other friends who play. Whether it’s simply sending them a gift or fertilizing their field to help their crops, you can do something nice for them without expending a lot of effort. For those friends that you don’t talk to all that often but still want to stay in touch with, these low-key gestures really make a difference. You can also make new friends—try adding some new friends from a Farmville fan site and send them a gift!

Does your green thumb need some exercise? Try Farmville!

Click here for a great Farmville strategy guide to help you level faster and earn unlimited coins.