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''FarmVille'' is a series of agriculture- simulation social network game developed and published by Zynga in 2009. It is similar to '' Happy Farm'' and ''Farm Town''. Its gameplay involves various aspects of farmland management, such as plowing land, planting,
growing Growing may refer to: * Growth (disambiguation) * Growing (band), a noise band based in Brooklyn, New York * ''Growing'' (Sleeping People album), 2007 *Growing (Rina Chinen album) * Growing, a children's song sung on the television program Barney ...
, and
harvest Harvesting is the process of gathering a ripe crop from the fields. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper. On smaller farms with minimal mechanization, harvesting is the most labor-i ...
ing crops, harvesting trees and raising livestock. The sequels ''FarmVille 2'' and ''FarmVille 3'' were released in September 2012 and November 2021. The game was available as an Adobe Flash application via the
social networking website A social networking service or SNS (sometimes called a social networking site) is an online platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests, act ...
Facebook and Microsoft's MSN Games. It was previously available as a mobile app for the iPhone,
iPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a music pl ...
, and iPad for a brief period in 2010. The game was free-to-play; however, to progress quickly within the game, players are encouraged to spend ''Farm Cash'' (in ''FarmVille'') or ''Farm Bucks'' (in ''FarmVille 2''), which are purchasable with real-world currency. ''FarmVille'' was thus one of the first major
freemium Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium," is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical (o ...
games. After launching on Facebook in 2009, ''FarmVille'' became the most popular game on the site, and held that position for over two years. At its peak, in March 2010, the game had 83.76 million monthly
active users Active users is a measurement metric that is commonly used to measure the level of engagement for a particular product or object, by quantifying the number of active interactions from visitors within a relevant range of time (daily, weekly and m ...
. Daily active users peaked at 34.5 million. After 2011, the game began experiencing a considerable decline in popularity. By May 2012, the game was ranked as the seventh most popular Facebook game. As of April 30, 2016, its rank had fallen to the 110th most popular Facebook game as measured by daily active users, while ''FarmVille 2'' had climbed to 42. On September 27, 2020, Zynga announced that it would discontinue the first ''FarmVille'' on Facebook on December 31, 2020, as Facebook was to stop supporting games running on Flash Player—required by ''FarmVille''—on that day. Following the existing ''FarmVille 2'', ''FarmVille 3'' focuses on mobile devices.


Gameplay

Once players began a farm, they would first create a customizable avatar, which could be changed at any point. The player began with an empty farm and a fixed starting number of Farm Coins, the primary currency in the game. Players earned XP (
experience point An experience point (often abbreviated as exp or XP) is a unit of measurement used in some tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's life experience and progression through the game. Experi ...
s) for performing certain actions in the game such as plowing land or buying items. At certain XP benchmarks, the player's level would rise. As the player obtained more items and progressed through levels, crops and animals would become available to them via the "market" where items could be purchased using either Farm Coins or Farm Cash. Farm Cash was earned by leveling up or completing offers, or purchased for real money. The main way a player earned Farm Coins, the less important of the two in-game currencies, was through harvesting crops or visiting their neighbors. The player would do this by paying coins for plowing a unit of land. This readied the land for planting seeds, which would eventually be harvested after a set amount of time. The amount of time it took for a crop to mature, and how much money a crop would yield when harvested, was dependent on the crop planted and was noted on its entry in the "market" dialog. They would wither, or they would be of no use when a crop-specific amount of time had elapsed, the amount of time being equal to 2.5 times the amount of time taken to grow the crop (for example, crops which took 8 hours to grow would wither after 2.5×8=20 hours). However, a player could use Farm Cash (purchasable with real-world cash) to purchase an "unwither" to rejuvenate the crops, or use a biplane with "instant grow" to cause crops to be immediately available for harvest. Although the biplane could be purchased with coins, this special feature was only available for Farm Cash. As a player leveled up more, crops with a higher payoff and economy would become available. Sometimes a crop would need a permit that costs Farm Cash in order to be planted. A player could buy or receive from friends livestock and trees or bushels, such as
cherry A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The nam ...
trees or chickens, which did not wither but instead became ready for harvest for preset amounts of money a set amount of time from their last harvest. Trees and livestock could not die.


In-game purchases

The two main in-game currencies, Farm Coins and Farm Cash (in ''FarmVille'') or Farm Bucks (in ''FarmVille 2''), were available for purchase from Zynga with real-world money. Coins could also be "earned" within the game by completing tasks or selling crops, and could be spent on basic in-game items such as seeds. Farm Cash and Farm Bucks were more difficult to acquire within the game, and could not be earned within the farm's economic system, only by special actions like leveling up or completing tasks. Farm Cash and Farm Bucks provided a route to acquire further in-game items, such as additional animals for the farm, or to acquire in-game resources like animal feed, water, fuel and power, which were otherwise slow and/or laborious for players to acquire.


Social interaction

Like most Zynga games, ''FarmVille'' incorporated the
social networking A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...
aspect of Facebook into many areas of gameplay. Contacting other players allowed the player to improve their farm more quickly, by using their help as farmhands or by gaining rewards from helping them. Often the aid of other players was a substitute for Farm Cash, the game's purchasable in-game currency, giving players an effective choice between spamming their friends with ''FarmVille'' messages and requests, or paying real-world cash. ''FarmVille'' had allowed players to add neighbors that are not Facebook friends, thus allowing the player to have many neighbors at hand. Players invited friends or other players that were not Facebook friends to be their neighbors, allowing them to perform five actions on each other's farms per day by "visiting" it. Neighbors could also send gifts and supplies to each other, complete specialized tasks together for rewards, and join "co-ops" - joint efforts to grow a certain amount of certain crops. Gifts were sent as mystery gifts with expensive, but random items, special deliveries with building supplies, or by choosing a particular item to send. They cost the sending user nothing. For ''FarmVille''s 2nd birthday, a series of different mystery gifts were added to the Gifts Page.


Development


Partnerships

''FarmVille'' occasionally ran in-game partnerships where users can visit another company's virtual farm and buy or receive items with their brand logo. For example, as of June 9, 2011, users could get free McDonald's hot air balloons, McCafe products and the ability to visit McDonald's' virtual farm. Other brand partnerships include Minion,
Frito Lay Frito-Lay is an American subsidiary of PepsiCo that manufactures, markets, and sells corn chips, potato chips, and other snack foods. The primary snack food brands produced under the Frito-Lay name include Fritos corn chips, Cheetos cheese-flavor ...
,
Dish Network DISH Network Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling TV. A ...
Hopper, Capital One,
American Express American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation specialized in payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The company was found ...
, Lady Gaga, Rio (the motion picture), Haiti Relief Fund, Discover Card,
Cascadian Farms General Mills, Inc., is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the company orig ...
,
Megamind ''Megamind'' is a 2010 American computer-animated superhero comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Directed by Tom McGrath from a screenplay by Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simons, the film stars the ...
, Farmers Insurance, Microsoft Bing, and
7-Eleven 7-Eleven, Inc., stylized as 7-ELEVE, is a multinational chain of retail convenience stores, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The chain was founded in 1927 as an ice house storefront in Dallas. It was named Tote'm Stores between 1928 and 1946. A ...
. ''FarmVille'' also offered engagement advertising where users could interact with a brand in exchange for free Farm Cash through an ad platform called SVnetwork.


Release


Expansions

''FarmVille'' has added numerous expansions over the game's lifetime, where players farm in new locales that include England, Hawaii, Japan, Atlantis, Winter holiday locations, Australia and more. As of 2014, ''FarmVille'' releases a new farm approximately every six weeks.


Board games

In 2012, Zynga, in conjunction with Hasbro, released several kids' "Animal Games" based on ''FarmVille'' under the "Hasbro Gaming" imprint. These include versions of '' Memory'' (in a "Disco Dancing Sheep" pouch), ''
Go Fish Go Fish or Fish is a card game usually played by two to five players,
although it can be played wi ...
'' (in a "Groovy Chicken" pouch), '' Old Maid'' (in a "Rockstar Cow" pouch), and ''Hungry Hungry Herd'' (a redux of '' Hungry Hungry Hippos'' with the characters Gobbling Horse, Munching Pig, Snacking Sheep and Chomping Cow replacing the Hippos in the original game). This is one of several games in the Zynga game library to be released as physical board game versions. Others include ''
Draw Something ''Draw Something'' is a video game developed by OMGPop based on its browser game ''Draw My Thing'', launched on February 6, 2012. It won a Flurry App Spotlight Award in 2012. In the first five weeks after its launching, the game was downloaded 2 ...
'', '' Words with Friends'' and a '' CityVille'' edition of '' Monopoly''.


Reception

Despite the initial success of the game, it has received a negative reaction from critics, video game designers, and personalities. '' Time'' magazine called the game one of the "50 Worst Inventions" in recent decades due to it being "the most addictive of Facebook games" and a "series of mindless chores on a digital farm". In a December 2010 interview with '' Gamasutra'', game designer and programmer
Jonathan Blow Jonathan Blow (born 1971) is an American video game designer and programmer. He is best known for his work on the independent video games ''Braid'' (2008) and '' The Witness'' (2016). Born in California, Blow developed a passion for game progra ...
criticized ''FarmVille'' for being designed to create an atmosphere of negativity, requiring an unprecedented commitment to the game, and encouraging users to exploit their friends. The video game researcher
Ian Bogost Ian Bogost is an American academic and video game designer, most known for the game ''Cow Clicker''. He holds a joint professorship at Washington University as director and professor of the Film and Media Studies program in Arts & Sciences and ...
designed '' Cow Clicker'' as a satire of ''FarmVille'' and similar Zynga games to deconstruct the repetitiveness and perceived absurdity of such games.


Awards

''FarmVille'' won an award at the Game Developers Conference for the "Best New Social/Online Game" in 2010. The crowd booed a Zynga executive as he accepted the award.


Sequels

On June 26, 2012, ''FarmVille 2'' was unveiled, and was subsequently released in September 2012. It differs from the original ''FarmVille'' in a number of ways. ''FarmVille 2: Country Escape'' for mobile devices ( iOS,
Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...
, Windows Phone and Windows operating systems) was released on April 10, 2014, and received a positive review from '' The New York Times''. Unlike other games in the ''FarmVille'' series, ''FarmVille 2: Country Escape'' can be played offline. ''FarmVille 3'' was released in November 2021.


References


Further reading

*


External links

* {{Authority control 2009 video games Browser-based multiplayer online games Facebook games Farming video games Social casual games Video games developed in the United States Video games with isometric graphics IOS games Zynga Free-to-play video games Casual games Products and services discontinued in 2020 Game Developers Choice Award winners