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We can make judgments about leisure activities just as we can about any other part of life. Playing sports, reading novels, and watching (good) movies can all m
by neilk 17y ago
We can make judgments about leisure activities just as we can about any other part of life. Playing sports, reading novels, and watching (good) movies can all make you a healthier, more reflective person, while being intrinsically entertaining. Even WoW, while it has some disturbing aspects, has the wonder of exploring a fantasy world, online society, and some strategy.
I don't play Farmville but I don't know of anyone that argues it's time well spent. Players don't even seem to be having "fun" by any normal definition. At best, it exploits social rewards to make you conform to the game makers' agenda.
Perhaps it's closer to fashion than recreation; where you're on a consumption treadmill that's largely controlled by others. Without the consolation of having nice clothes or looking any better.
- robryan 17y agoYou would have to think farmville would have a high churn rate to, I played it casually for about a month before I realised there was little point continuing. Even some of the most dedicated amongst my friends eventually stopped after a few months. If anything the achievements in the game seemed to keep people coming back, even though some of them were just arbitrary large numbers of things done. I don't think it is really a fun game at all which makes me think how successful a similar game would be if someone got the fun factor right, something like a civ for facebook or something.
- duck 17y agoYeah, but I think what we would consider fun would pretty much kill a game like Farmville in terms of popularity. I am only guessing... but your typical gamer is not playing Facebook.
- roundsquare 17y agoUnfortunately, fun usually involves the possibility of failure and trying to overcome it (at least with video games). Having a high chance of failure would probably ruin the games popularity.