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Karl Burkart

Ploughing the digital landscape

At FarmVille, digital farming is far more profitable than the real thing -- $150 million in 2009 and growing! And no dirty hands ...
Wed, Nov 11 2009 at 7:08 PM EST
Read more: FARMING & AGRICULTURE, GREEN KIDS

Image: FarmVille
Of all the fascinating Internet trends in 2009, perhaps none provokes more amazement than the enormous success of the Facebook game FarmVille.
 
Like an agrarian Sims, FarmVille allows you to tend a virtual plot of land. You harvest your crops, save coins and then use those coins to purchase farm implements, animals and seeds that will help increase the size and scale of your own virtual farming operation.
 
The game is deceptively simple. The cut-out cartoon-style graphics belies a very complex ecommerce engine which forms the backbone of Farmville's digital landscape. That ecommerce engine has churned out a pretty good harvest for Zynga, the makers of the game, who estimate a total of $150 million in revenue collected from its 56 million Facebook farmers in 2009.
 
Yes, you heard me right. People pay REAL money to buy special, limited-edition animals and magical seeds that grow special crops which quickly move players up the ladder of the nation's top ranking cyber-farmers. FarmVille's innovative micropayment system has made such purchases relatively painless and created a cornucopia of financial opportunity for social game developers.
 
There is certainly an addictive quality about FarmVille. Like Mafia Wars (also created by Zynga) the game lets you play in conjunction with your friends (you can give crops or coins to friends to help them along the way) and you can compete your way to the biggest farm in the land. 
 
But unlike Mafia Wars, which gains its appeal via the thrill of knocking someone off, FarmVille is appealing for other reasons.
 
I believe it taps into a deep-seated desire to "grow things" — to connect to nature in a weird, digitized sort of way. That 500 x 800 pixel window onto the world gives the player a sense of ownership and pride in creating his or her very own peaceable kingdom, a drive that must be secretly hard-wired into our agrarian brains.
 
There can be no other explanation. I regularly get FarmVille requests from people who are in their 30's and 40's — people who have jobs and kids and who would normally consider themselves "cool" while not engaged in the thoroughly uncool act of planting a pink pom pom bush for their nanny goat.
 
Somehow these digital goods are fulfilling a social and psychological need. Otherwise people wouldn't be paying real cash and risking getting caught at work in their digital overalls. FarmVille, I think, is not as much about the game as it is about the fulfillment of a fantasy to live a simpler life, a fantasy which seems to grow stronger the more technologically complex our lives become.
 
 
It all sounds a bit ironic, but FarmVille does indeed gives its digital farmers a way to "feel good" each day, a feature recently enhanced by the addition of a cause component to the game. A player can now buy special seeds that will go to feeding children in Haiti. 
 
Though it seems childlike, FarmVille should not be underestimated in the new digital economy. Virtual goods — like overalls, nanny goats, tractors and pink bushes — are now very real commodities. According to the Times Online, the digital goods market doubled this year and is set to pass the $1 billion mark.
 
And as web servers get cheaper, the quality of these games will get more and more sophisticated. It may not be long before the failed vision of Second Life is reborn "from the ground up" by a set up virtual environments knitted together through a common digital currency.
 
Zynga may well be the heir apparent to the Second Life throne. The company, headed up by social media guru Mark Pincus, recently launched two new virtual worlds — the urban YoVille and the aquatic FishVille. You can see where this is going... EarthVille.
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Comments(15)

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Posted By Jacon Cortes - Mon, Nov 16 2009 at 9:48 AM EST

Better Research

I have never played Farmville, but it seems to me the writer has not either. His comment on the "failed Vision of Second Life" is also suspect. The second and third quarter reports from Second Life have all shown growth in all sectors. I can only guess the writer has not spent any time what so ever in Second Life. As the web moves to a more 3D format, social networking sites will move to create or merge with virtual worlds to allow even more contact between their residents.

Posted By Tracie - Sun, Nov 15 2009 at 2:34 PM EST

A sweet game

I am 42, and I started playing this because my sister asked me to. After I played for a short time, I realized it was a great game for kids. I now play with my 9 year old. There's no violence, no commercials and no competition. It's relaxing and cute. There should be more things online like this.

Posted By Elizabeth - Sat, Nov 14 2009 at 8:08 PM EST

I love Farmville!

I actually started virtual farming with FarmTown (which came first, I believe). There is something relaxing and fun about these casual social games.

Posted By Sick of Farmville - Fri, Nov 13 2009 at 8:32 AM EST

Stop sending me Farmville updates!

I've got no problem with people playing Farmville ---- I just don't want to hear about it on Facebook. Hello all you Farmville people - your updates are boring!

Plus, honestly if you want to experience farming - plant a small garden or grow veggies in pots on your balcony.

Posted By Avocadoinparadise - Thu, Nov 12 2009 at 4:56 PM EST

Skewed version of farm reality

It is sad that Farmville isn't accurately protraying the returns that farmers get & their tight budgets. I just read this about how tough it is to be a small farmer in American & how the gov't could fix that. Can they incorporate this into the game please? http://www.newsweek.com/id/222299

Posted By mamabear - Thu, Nov 12 2009 at 2:18 PM EST

love fv!

i was a secret farmville player until i realized that several people i knew were playing... it is sort of sad that we are so deprived from experiencing nature that we have to settle for these virtual gardens... it does make me and my friends happy though... i would never spend money on it ... only lot's of time!

Posted By Diva - Thu, Nov 12 2009 at 1:53 PM EST

Sorry for double post

I blame it on sun spots.

Posted By Diva - Thu, Nov 12 2009 at 1:51 PM EST

Reports of death greatly exaggerated

So unsure why the imaginary "failure of Second Life" even relates to this article which appears to be a speculation on what the author feels must -- just must -- be true.

Even the first sentence is begging for a good fisking. (Says who?) I have a feeling that the author ran across Farmville on Facebook, thought "Now there's an idea for an article!" and pounded it out in an hour to meet the deadline. Oh, for the good old days when articles were only written on the basis of some research..... More

Posted By Diva - Thu, Nov 12 2009 at 1:51 PM EST

Reports of death greatly exaggerated

So unsure why the imaginary "failure of Second Life" even relates to this article which appears to be a speculation on what the author feels must -- just must -- be true.

Even the lede sentence is begging for a good fisking. (Says who?) I have a feeling that the author ran across Farmville on Facebook, thought "Now there's an idea for an article!" and pounded it out in an hour to meet the deadline. Oh, for the good old days when articles were only written on the basis of some research..... More

Posted By atplay04 - Thu, Nov 12 2009 at 1:26 PM EST

one other thing...

I agree with the idea that it "feels good" to create this simple and rewarding world (by the way, your examples were beyond bad, you should have gotten help from someone who actually plays this game) but I think it also taps into that pure joy you would get as a kid playing with GI Joe's or Barbie dolls. It's just fun to pretend, and adults don't get enough of that in their all too real life.

Posted By Terri - Thu, Nov 12 2009 at 1:06 PM EST

Tempting

I may have to join Facebook just to try this.

Posted By Sandi Broell - Wed, Jan 06 2010 at 4:26 PM EST

I agree

The only reason I joined facebook is because of farmville. When you are unemployed and the bills are piling up it makes you have a good reason to get up in the morning.

Posted By Dale Innis - Thu, Nov 12 2009 at 12:42 PM EST

The writer has probably never played Second Life, either.

I'm very very tired of clueless wanna-be journalists saying stuff like "the failed vision of Second Life". Second Life is doing just fine, thank you, and the hype-and-failure cycles that the pretend-media builds around it are completely imaginary.

Posted By Brian Howard - Thu, Nov 12 2009 at 11:28 AM EST

great article!

Fascinating idea!

Posted By FVFarmer - Thu, Nov 12 2009 at 11:03 AM EST

The writer has obviously never played FV!!

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