Not Casual

If there’s one casual game that’s become decidedly not casual it’s Zynga’s Facebook sensation Farmville.  A game which is essentially about watching a progress bar, and seeing nothing actually happen.  As a phenomenon it’s attracted an equal amount of love and hate.  It’s very hard to find an unbiased opinion on the game so, as a public service, I’ve put myself into the line of fire and joined the ranks playing Farmville.

Given it’s nature it’s clear I can’t compare Farmville to other console based games.  Therefore I’ve put in a week of back breaking labour to establish my very own vegetable garden, with which to compare against Farmville…

Appearance:

It’s substantially easier to get pretty lines of vegetables in Farmville than it is in real life.  Farmville’s graphics are basic and serviceable.  They’re charming enough and the simplicity is refreshing.

The vegetables growing in my garden appear to be in high definition.

Working:

In Farmville you click to plough land (with pretty progress bar), then select which crops to plant (with pretty progress bar).  Then you wait.  Crops can take anything for a couple of hours to a few days to grow.  At that point you click the crop to harvest (with pretty progress bar).

In real life I ploughed the land, planted the crops and I’m still waiting for them to be ready for harvest.  I’ve been unable to see a progress bar anywhere.  Maybe I’ll get one when it’s time to lift the potatoes…

Co-Operation:

Farmville is also largely about helping friends.  Getting more neighbours increases the size of your farm.  Once a day you can then go and help out on your friends farm, fertilizing crops, feeding chickens and watching progress bars.  This sense of community works better than many full console games, and there’s absolutely no tea bagging going on.  Halo eat your heart out.

In my real garden I’ve been able to get my four year old son to help me plant some onions.  Then he hit me.

Price:

At it’s basic level Farmville is free.  If you’re prepared to spend some real money you can buy some Farmville cash.  This can be used to buy special objects for your farm or (if you’re friendless like me) buy more land for your farm.  It supports standard secure purchasing, paypal or facebook credits, and if you’re playing for any amount of time it’s reasonably good value compared to what you’d spend on a standard game.  I’ve certainly spent more time playing Farmville than I have some full price games.

The garden has cost me a small fortune to set up, and I’m not entirely convinced that the crops I’ll harvest will save me from having to spend as much on the weekly shop…

Results:

I’m finding Farmville curiously enjoyable.  It’s not going to replace World of Warcraft, or God of War, or indeed anything else.  I can however plant a few crops whilst waiting for a new game to start in Battlefield.  It’s also something my Wife really enjoys, so to be able to converse with her (and to a lesser extent care) about Farmville is nothing to be sniffed at.  It’s not perfect, but Farmville is pleasant and well implemented.  It’s not something that should really work up emotions about it either way.

My garden gives me a chance to relax after a busy day.  That’s nice.

Verdict:

As a free to play game it doesn’t really fit into our standard buy, rent, avoid review.  I’d advise anyone to play it, you might just enjoy it.  There’s really no point avoiding it to prove a point, that speaks more of fear of actually liking it.  As an aside, with this sort of micro transaction model I recommend that if you do play a lot you spend a little real cash on it to support the developers.  Think of it as the modern shareware.

I’m still waiting for my garden to produce anything.  I’ll let you know…

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