Yes, social obligation is an important factor in Farmville's growth, but it's not the main reason people continue playing. Short answer; they enjoy it. The game

Yes, social obligation is an important factor in Farmville's growth, but it's not the main reason people continue playing. Short answer; they enjoy it. The game's basic cycle of "do action x to get a reward and unlock action y which gives a bigger reward and alloys you to do action z..." is one that's optimized to deliver predictable squirts of dopamine into human brains, and is also a mechanic that appears in numerous other games, including more respectable genres like RPGs and strategy games. Farmville and other social games just show you don't need to wrap it in a layer of strategy or skill, though it does mean that people tire of it quite quickly. Reading this is like watching an alien race trying to figure out why these hairless primates are so fond of naked gymnastics. "It appears to be for procreation, but they frequently use contraceptives, so that can't be it. They're generally lazy, so exercise can't be the motivation. I know! It must be a complicated sense of social obligation."