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Sunday, November 08, 2009

FarmVille: for beginners (& late adopters)

I have started waking up early again, to harvest my crops before they wither.. well.. in my little farm in FarmVille (beta version) on Facebook. I tried to stay away as long as I could. I have been hooked on to enough games and applications (from Lara Croft to Bonsai Blast) to know it is bad for you, unless taken control of. But like I mentioned it to one of my friends who finally got rid of FarmVille updates from his news feed, 'it is like crack, you know shouldn't and that is what tempts you.' (Though I never have and never will do drugs)

So, after what was supposed to be the last mid-term week of my life, I decided to see why everyone is so hooked on to it.(There are currently 63,543,438 monthly active users worldwide.)

It all started with my real-life neighbor, giving away a lost, black kitten on Facebook. It reminded me of the kitten I had adopted as a kid. (Aww, isn't she cute?) But now, it wasn't enough, if you took it, you have to give it a home right? Jump in. And suddenly, you are in the league of the jobless people you thought have no better/more productive work to do.

You can raise trees, plow and plant seeds of fruits & vegetable, watch them grow (don't stare too long) and harvest them when they are ready. Ask your FarmVille friends to help you, while you help your neighbors and earn experience points (xp) and coins in the process. You can also gift your neighbors and hope they will be kind enough to return the favor. (My cousin gave me my first horse which I really treasure)

There is a market you can buy stuff from - right from seeds, trees, animals to decorations. Some have limited editions- I own two green BOV1NE-09 cows, which look like they are from outer space. The app also had crop circles for a while. Some farm elements can only be gifted.

You can develop your own strategies to expand your farm; different crops have different profit margins per harvest. You can make your own portfolio of crops, animals, & trees. Investing in decoration in the initial levels is not wise, but I so wanted a small pond, I ended up spending 5000 coins for it.

The trick is to know your real-time log-in times and plan accordingly, 'cause the crops wither if you do not harvest them after full bloom. Fertilized crops yield more xp and look fuller when reap. But you can't fertilize your own crops, so use the goodwill currency. Do unto others what you want to be done to you.

I have visited a couple of farms which have withered crops, but that probably means you are busy somewhere else, which is good. Someone mentioned that it is a stress-buster. I agree, as long as it is not eating away into your work hours.

I wish Zynga would make FarmVille Android-friendly so that I could play it from my G1. Do they have an iPhone version yet?

Feel free to share your own tricks. Happy farming !

FarmVille Fact: Sweet Seeds for Haiti (Sweet Potatoes) was a success and over $583,000 was donated to impoverished children and their families in Haiti.

3 comments:

Aparna Ganguly said...

Addictive ! :D

Amanda Yno said...

I am so addicted to farmville. I wondered how long does it takes for my plants to withered before i harvest them. really tired of long waiting.. 94% to go ... patience~

Aparna Ganguly said...

I read somewhere it is 50% of harvest time after full bloom. For example, if you are growing strawberries (4 hrs harvest time), your crops will start withering 2 hrs after full bloom, ie 6 hrs after u plant them.