99 Days on FarmVille

Hello Fellow Farmers,

Alas, my 99 day experiment, or more like video game penance, has been completed. I have finished my 99 days on FarmVille. The whole reason I started this blog was because I was trying to get a job at Zynga and I figured I should know how the games work.  Before I knew it, a friend of mine hooked me up with 50 of her FarmVille friends – thanks Colleen! And my experiment took off from there with over 20,000 unique visitors in 99 days. Thank you to all that followed along. I hope you found my posts funny and useful.

I have to mention that in the beginning of this blog someone asked me, “so will you quit after the 99 days or will you keep going because you are addicted?” I replied then that I would be quitting and I am a woman of my word. I don’t find the game addicting, although, I can see how people with addictive personalities could find it addicting. After all, the developers at Zynga are constantly updating this game with new things to build, buy, or get.

My assessment of the game itself: one big time suck. Seriously. I found that this game passed the time and if you are lonely, bored, retired, sick, a stay at home mom with little ones in school or unemployed and looking for a job (like me) then this game would probably appeal to you. But, if you are a busy bee or employed then this game will suck up your time like crumbs in a vacuum.

The developers are still learning. The reason they have constant updates is not only to make the game better and more interesting, but to make it so that you can’t scam it. I posted a bunch of those tips and tricks throughout this blog just because it made the game more compelling.

As promised, I took a photo of my farm, which will probably piss the folks off over at PETA by the way I packed in my little calves.And I got to level 50!

But with all do respect, there were some great and stupid things that came out of FarmVille. Now for the  “awards” ceremony…

The FarmVille Awards:

Donny Dummy Award for the dumbest thing(s): The double sized avatar – I still can’t get over that silly “reward.” Whoever thought that was a good idea at Zynga should get the award for dumbest FarmVille idea of the year and be harassed every day by his/her co-workers for such a stupid idea.  Co-op farming was another dumb idea. In concept, it sounded cool, but the execution was weak. It was like they were figuring it out as they were going along. That’s not the way you develop.

Happy Farmer Award goes to the best thing(s): The farm hands, arborists, unwither and the bonus packs. Those items were perhaps my saving grace when it came to saving me time.

Creative Mind Award: Changing the way the Mystery Eggs appear to appear more like the Mystery Easter Egg Reward. You don’t feel so disappointed accepting a blind egg, not knowing what’s in it. Whoever thought this up at Zynga should be given the blue ribbon for best idea and a raise frankly, because people were scamming the hell out of this until tattletale NancyOveralls spilled the beans on the Zynga forum. Her name should be called NancySquarepants and the snitch should get a life.

Savvy Marketer Award: Goes to the person who came up with the idea that you can get 3 of one item if you recruit a new person to play FarmVille when you are requesting a gift.

My Top 10 ideas for improvements:

• Expandable horse stable
• Ability to buy Unwither for coin, not just FV cash
• Expandable chicken coup – up to 100 chickens or be able to buy more than 1 coup
• MegaPlow – a plow that plows your entire farm (kind of like the arborists and farmhands)
• MegaHarvester – a harvester that harvests all ready crops (same as above)
• MegaSeeder – a seeder that seeds all plowed plots at the click of a button (same as above)
• Collection items you can gift should not be available by clicking on a completed collection. One has to figure that one can get those if necessary. When I click on a completed collection I want to get something that I don’t have a chance of getting any other way.
• Rare collection items in the eggs. The rare items are nearly impossible to get.
• If I have 10 (the limit) of any collection, and I click on a reward and I get an 11^th of that item that I can’t use, FV should be able to see that I have 10 and offer me something else.
• The ability to swap collection items either within FV or with other players

In closing, I’d like to thank all of those who followed this blog. If you liked what you read and my sense of humor, you can follow me on Twitter @tracysestili or you can become a Fan on Facebook Tracy Sestili –Writer or check out one of my other blogs at www.tracysestil.com

Cheers,
Tracy