More Farmville frustrations
It’s been some time since I wrote a FarmVille post. The original game was good, but it’s designer has left Zynga and the game is unrecognisable now and quite complicated. I have Home Farm, with an extension called Sunflower Meadow.
The Farms
I also switch to 4 other farms. There is a ridiculous number now, including Enchanted Glen, Mistletoe Lane, Australia, Hawaiian Paradise, Hanging Gardens, Jade Falls, Haunted Hollow, Celestial Pastures and Sweet Acres. They’re just the ones I can’t be bothered with! What are all those things down both sides of my screen? I have no idea! I actually do Home Farm, English Countryside, Lighthouse Cove, Winter Wonderland and Atlantis. That’s a bit too much and so I use some of those for the crops that take a few days.
The Craft Shop
The Craft Shop is quite important on my farms. I never have enough storage so I constantly make SDBs, that’s special deliveries. I also make Farmhands to harvest the hundreds of belted cows I have scattered around my farms. SDBs can be used to expand your stalls or your crafting silo, both of which never seem to have enough space. That has been made worse by organic farming! I have made a few of those ‘organic crafts’, it hardly seems worth bothering and so I give most of those crops away.
Timing
Timing is important in FarmVille. You have to know when to plant crops and harvest them. I played early this morning, so planted crops that would take one day or more and on some farms, crops that would take 12 hours. The latter will be harvested tonight, if I remember! When I harvest something later, I can plant coffee which takes 16 hours and is an ingredient in SDBs. My carrot crop will be finished about 11am. That will be too early for coffee and too late for more carrots! I think I might plant strawberries that will need to be harvested 4 hours later.
Investing
FarmVille is designed so you have to invest a lot of time into the game and some players spend real money buying FV cash too. If my strawberries wither later, I won’t worry; but that is frustrating for many players. The pop ups and other annoyances are frustrating too. It’s a frustrating game. You can avoid many of these frustrations by buying FV cash! There is not a chance I will do that. I have over a billion FV coins and they seem quite useless now, it takes too long to spend them!
Levels
Most people try to level up and go to the higher levels of the game. I’m on level 1513 and I don’t care about levelling up any more. One of my neighbours is on level 196*. I can’t read the last digit! I know, it’s ridiculous. FarmVille is a ridiculous game. It was designed to be addictive and I think for many people it is. I could give it up, I probably will at some time. It passes the time for a little while after breakfast and while I play I think about what I will be writing a little later in the morning.
Farmville is a frustrating game and it could be improved a lot. They could make it more educational so that people learn as they play it. Zynga is far too greedy for their own good. If they were motivated by the desire to make a great game instead of the desire to make lots of money everyone would benefit, including them.
What do you think of Farmville and other Zynga games? Please share your thoughts in the comments box. You can also follow me on Twitter for updates.
Related articles
- Zynga has been on a wild ride in just five short years – while losing $600M. http://t.co/FD15PI5JLg (arstechnica.com)
- If Farmville had a Farm Bill (wagfarms.com)
Mike10613's Blog 
Hi Mike, I haven’t played Farmville in two years. It was difficult to keep up with my farms and the blog so I chose the blog. Zynga has struggled to find ways to keep the game engaging. Adding more farms to the mix hasn’t seemed to help. That’s what overwhelmed me. If I had stuck with one farm I may not have quit.
I don’t blame game companies for trying to make money. But they have to realize that the majority of players who don’t pay for the game make it much more entertaining for the folks who do pay money. Making the game frustrating for the free players will only drive them away.
21, September 2013 at 3:27 pm
Hi Carolyn,
You’re quite right, they are driving players away. They try other games but Zynga has only had a profit for one year. They are making a loss and need to make have fewer games but lots of game play. They need me as an advisor. They could do games like SimCity which would suit them and was a very popular game. A game like Scorched Earth would be awesome. They need to forget fancy 3D graphics, gamers want playability and speed! They could make their money from advertising and merchandising. FarmVille tee shirts would popular if the game was a cult.
21, September 2013 at 5:37 pm