Musings of an hypocritical rustic hick.
I remember when I first started playing. I clicked on a request out of sheer curiousity. It didn't seem like there was much to it, so I pressed the correct buttons and managed to grow a few virtual crops. The gifts started rolling in. Feeling a duty to return to my friends, I started obliging and eventually I got roped in after becoming ambitious to rise up the levels, so I could get to the Pink Roses. A few of my writer friends were also playing which made it feel like a 'respectable' time-wasting occupation. Didn't we all have the writer's block, so my excuse goes. When I looked into the farms of some of the higher levels, I felt a surge of attitude flow through my bones. "Who do they think they are, with their large mansions, and massive plots?". I began to think of it as 'us and 'them'. My meager few acres seemed paltry in comparison. It didn't take long to transform into an inverted-snob. But as I rose through the ranks my reluctant dislike for the 'big-shot' farmers dwindled, and to my horror, I realised I had become one of 'them'. I enlarged my acres, bought mansions, upgraded my harvesters and and started wallowing like a pig in muck. I had to log in every morning to 'harvest my crops'. Once while visiting my brother in the real country-side, he actually placed a ban on Farmville and policed my activities on his lap-top. It was at this point I perceived the problem. The 'us and them' dilemma was not restricted to the world of cyber horticultural pursuits, the real problem lay between the players and the non-players. To the point that I almost fell out with my own sibling.
There are other social nuances that can be squeezed from Farmville analysis, but I think the game has bled dry enough of my free-time as it is, so I will leave it at that.
My daughter is an avid Farmville player (she has more free time than I do so I avoid this pastime altogether). It provides her with social interaction on FB as well as something to do on long, boring winter days while in between semesters. I don't think she's too competitive, she says she has a "black thumb" and kills her crops.
ReplyDeleteMany years ago I developed an addiction to Tetris and my goal was to get higher and higher scores so I could brag about how great a Tetris player I was. This was before we had an Internet connection.
I've given up online games in favor of writing, which is a lot more fun, and takes up so much time my husband complains that I ignore him. He says I'm addicted to Microsoft Word and Bulgarian folk music and that I'm a candidate for a 12-Step program (does that include folk dancing?)