Salonaz Sami investigates FarmVille, the latest Internet gaming phenomenon "Howdy friend! How would you like to be neighbours?" It was a friendly request, and I couldn't help but accept. FarmVille seems to be just another computer game at first, but slowly it grows on you, and you realise that it is anything but average. A game where players can "farm with friends," as Zenga, the game's creator, puts it, FarmVille is not only about virtual farming. It also involves all kinds of virtual activities, like adopting and feeding animals and building stables, farm houses and public buildings such as police stations and schools. FarmVille gives players the chance to build their own little utopia, or in some cases even a mighty plantation version of utopia. And the thrill of constantly buying new things and levelling up is so much fun that the game can get addictive, so addictive in fact that it has turned into something of a phenomenon. Almost everywhere you go you now find someone playing it. It doesn't matter if it is 11pm or 5am, and it doesn't matter if players are in their 20s or their 50s, there is always someone somewhere playing. Players may want to think twice about logging onto their FarmVille site to organise the harvest or plough the fields for this year's crops, however. In what may be the first incident of a computer game costing a man his job, one Bulgarian man was removed from his post on a city council in March because he was spending excessive amounts of time on FarmVille during meetings. Virtual farmer Dimitar Kerin defended himself by pointing out that his fellow committee members also played the game, so much so in fact that they were at higher levels than he was. Kerin and other members of the 51-member council in Bulgaria's second-largest city had been warned that the council's wireless network was not to be used for playing games on social media sites during meetings. But for Kerin managing his virtual farm and feeding his chickens during meetings proved hard to resist despite the warnings. Since its launch in June 2009, FarmVille has become the most popular game on the social media Facebook site, with over 82 million active users and 23 million fans in March 2010. Total FarmVille users are put at over 20 per cent of Facebook total users and over one per cent of the world's population. While Kerin might be the first FarmVille firing on record, his apparent addiction to the game points to a broader trend of social media sites leading to problems at work and at home. In a recent episode of the online show Dr Phil, the site's presenter confronted a mother and housewife called Teresa about her FarmVille addiction. Teresa had "unplugged the router, so you would think the Internet had gone down, and as soon as you went away, she plugged it back in and went back to tending her crops," Dr Phil told Teresa's daughter Jennifer. "Part of the reason is because of her attitude when I ask to get on the computer," Teresa responded. "No it is not," replied Dr Phil. "You unplugged it because you have a ridiculous addiction to a ridiculous game that is interfering with your ability to be a mother. You needed a fix, and she wouldn't get off, so you had to create the opportunity." Could this real-time farm simulation game be the addictive drug of the new millennium? The game, which allows players to acquire substantial amounts of coins and experience, also strikes a nerve with its simple interface and mind-blowing rewards system. Every activity a player takes part in is rewarded by some form of virtual prize, whether coins, FarmVille cash or experience points. Could this explain why players stay up so late to harvest one more plot of land? Or is FarmVille simply the world's most popular time-waster? According to Aida Salama, a professor of social studies, "the game is as addictive as cocaine or alcohol. Once you are hooked, you can't put the thing down. But Facebook isn't really the place to be productive anyway," she said. "So we shouldn't just blame this particular game for wasting our time." "I can't hang out with my friends without hearing about their crops or adopted animals," said 28-year-old Mennah Edris. "I have to wait for them to harvest their strawberries before we can go out and have real-life fun," she adds. "I want life to go back to normal, when we were able to discuss real issues and problems, rather than always talking about virtual avatars." Zenga, the game's developer, specialises in games that are easy to learn but hard to walk away from, like Mafia Wars and Café World, the second and third most popular games on Facebook. However, Zenga has also been accused of copying others' games, as well as scamming users through misleading offers, such as filling in bogus surveys that subscribe users to unwanted services. Due to such negative publicity, Zenga removed all virtual cash offers in November last year. Ever since the social networking site Facebook achieved worldwide use, game applications like Vampire and Mafia Wars have become as addictive for some as FarmVille. However, FarmVillians, as they call themselves, have now taken the game way beyond the social network: tens of blogs are created every day sharing tips for the game and including Excel sheets showing which crops provide the greatest returns. FarmVille Freak is one such blog that is only about a month old and yet already has some 25,000 visitors per day. "You know, it is possible for someone to get addicted to real farming too," says 43-year-old Ahmed Hussein. "It gets to the point that you are spending thousands of pounds on seeds, trees, bug killers, tools and plants, among other stuff." In Hussein's view, when measured against the Facebook application, FarmVille definitely loses. "You don't have the sun on your face, the dirt on your hands, or the actual fruit and vegetables of your labour to eat," he adds. "But could it be," Hussein wondered, "that the more technology we have, the more we crave some sort of rural life experience?" I wondered about that last night too as I was waiting to harvest grapes on FarmVille. Maybe what is so attractive about FarmVille is the fact that the site allows users to do what they cannot do in real life. My thoughts were interrupted by a message from a police officer friend that read, "You started a co-op I joined and you haven't even started to seed yet. Are you kidding me?"
