A few weeks ago I was invited by a few friends on Facebook to become their neighbour in the FarmVille game. Until then none of the games passing by caught my attention, but this one did as I have worked as a farmhand and loves countrylife. And I am hooked.
I check in the first thing I do in the morning to make sure none of my crops go bad and to see how the animals are doing. And keep chasing the points to take me to the next level so I can buy new plants, trees, decorations and buildings.
Apparently I am not alone. In a blogpost on August 27 Mashable pointed out that “11 Million Facebook Users Flock to Virtual Farming Daily“. Wow.
Will these social games stick? There are a few out there and I see my Facebook friends engaged in several of them. I believe that just like in other games interest will dvindle and players move to other games. But what makes FarmVille, and the other games by Zynga, so good is that they are simple and doesn’t demand much brainpower, just enough for a bit of causal play during spare time.
It will be interestin to see the first productplacements in a game like this, or a game developed exclusively by a company. Perhaps something for the goverment: “Save the society from the Swine flu”. 
And no, I am not a hardcore FarmVille user yet – I’m not investing real money.
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