3 ms·

FarmVille: who knew boredom could be a cash crop?

15 points by envitar 17y ago

chris100 17y ago
Interesting that while the article mentions TechCrunch's crusade, it never mentions the problematic aspect, which are the scammy offers. The article only mentions buying virtual goods as a problem. I'd say scamming is worse.
- dabent 17y ago
  That was my take as well. If someone wants to pay cash to play a game, even one I might think is silly, it's none of my business. What TC was after were misleading offers that can end up costing players a lot.
- philk 17y ago
  The traditional media gets their facts wrong again. I suppose it was better than the NYT article on Zynga.
arien 17y ago
It's actually a pretty cute game, and addicting if you're into sim games. Micropayments for games are nothing new, though, and thankfully optional (although always tempting). You can snap out of the addiction though, if you stop for a minute and count how many clicks are required every time you have to harvest - plow - plant a big sized field in a 20x20 (or more) farm. RSI, anyone?
misuba 17y ago
From the article: "In fact, FarmVille isn't really a game at all. It's an online hobby, and has far more in common with knitting or gardening than a first-person shooter." It has this mostly in common with The Sims. Most people don't want to play games. (Make something people want.)
old-gregg 17y ago
I see FarmVille is an ultimate embarrassment for Flash as a "platform" for anything: an insanely powerful Core Duo 2 falls victim to Adobe's genius: the PC turns into a buzzing oven essentially displaying a nearly static image with some minimal 80-s style animations here and there. I can literally hear when my wife launches it from anywhere in the house: those tiny little laptop fans just scream "farmville-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e". Oh, and then I can hear her: "where is the power cord?", in about 45 minutes. Who knew that virtual agriculture could be so CPU intensive. :)
pyman 17y ago
Mafia War: 30 millona daily active users in Facebook. Jelous? I bet you are! They are anti-valley BS, and I respect that.

15 points by envitar 17y ago

Interesting that while the article mentions TechCrunch's crusade, it never mentions the problematic aspect, which are the scammy offers. The article only mentions buying virtual goods as a problem. I'd say scamming is worse.

dabent 17y ago
That was my take as well. If someone wants to pay cash to play a game, even one I might think is silly, it's none of my business. What TC was after were misleading offers that can end up costing players a lot.
philk 17y ago
The traditional media gets their facts wrong again. I suppose it was better than the NYT article on Zynga.

arien 17y ago

It's actually a pretty cute game, and addicting if you're into sim games. Micropayments for games are nothing new, though, and thankfully optional (although always tempting). You can snap out of the addiction though, if you stop for a minute and count how many clicks are required every time you have to harvest - plow - plant a big sized field in a 20x20 (or more) farm. RSI, anyone?

misuba 17y ago

From the article: "In fact, FarmVille isn't really a game at all. It's an online hobby, and has far more in common with knitting or gardening than a first-person shooter." It has this mostly in common with The Sims. Most people don't want to play games. (Make something people want.)

old-gregg 17y ago

I see FarmVille is an ultimate embarrassment for Flash as a "platform" for anything: an insanely powerful Core Duo 2 falls victim to Adobe's genius: the PC turns into a buzzing oven essentially displaying a nearly static image with some minimal 80-s style animations here and there. I can literally hear when my wife launches it from anywhere in the house: those tiny little laptop fans just scream "farmville-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e". Oh, and then I can hear her: "where is the power cord?", in about 45 minutes. Who knew that virtual agriculture could be so CPU intensive. :)

pyman 17y ago

Mafia War: 30 millona daily active users in Facebook. Jelous? I bet you are! They are anti-valley BS, and I respect that.