A Taste of a Life of a Land Bourgeois: Tilling the Wonders of Farm Town

“That is so lame! Ang boring.”

This was my initial reaction when I first saw my friends playing Farm Town.  I’d never thought I will be hooked, too.

Unlike the usual computer games I play, Farm Town does not boast any edge on graphical design, nor sound effects, nor brain cell-stimulating missions. It doesn’t require you to be dexterous in clicking your mouse or typing on your keyboard. Even a simpleton will turn to be an expert in this game.

So what could have possibly got me hooked?

1. It’s FREE. Who wouldn’t want a free game, right? I have no money to buy softwares. 

2. It’s a multiplayer game. Farm Town is affiliated with social networks, such as Myspace and Facebook. When you visit other people’s farms, hang out at the Inn or beg for job at the market, you can post shoutouts like, “Add me in facebook” or “Who’s from Louisiana?”. When another farmer reads this, he’ll answer back and you can have a conversation. It’s a built-in chat.

3. It’s simple and the mechanics are easy to follow. Super.

4. It’s addictive. Di ba ma’am? (hehe)

Some people who haven’t played the game often calls it plain and no fun at all. But later on, as they progress to a higher level, they’ll be owning the computer unit for the next four hours. Look what happened to me. Lol.

So if you plan to play it, add me up. And you may consider the following:

1. Good internet connection. Perhaps due to the large number of players, the game often pops out messages like “Connection to server failed. Click the green button to reload the game.” Or something like that.

2.  Plenty of friends/buddies/neighbors. Having a lot of friends/neighbors have its advantages. It will be easier for you to hire or be hired. Working for a neighbor can also save you 50% of the cost when you hire them to plow your field. Adding buddies gives you instant access to your mates whenever you have the urge to harvest some berries/crops/fruits.

3. Belief in Mutualism. Throughout the game, some of your friends might send you gifts (e.g. trees, animals). While there are people who are so obedient they send you gifts back, there are some that you need to thoroughly convince so you can have that _____ (write something that you really want to receive).

4. Convincing powers. When you are stuck in the game (your crops are not yet ready for harvesting, you don’t have money left, or you want to increase your experience points), you may want to go to the Marketplace. This is where one gets a job. So how do you get a job? Simply “sell yourself” (according to one of friends). You need to be very submissive to the other farmers. Some players even beg just to have a job. It depends on you how you’ll convince the others to hire you harvest or plow.

5. Patience. The game lags sometimes.

It can also boost your self-esteem when you level-up. Hiring someone to plow or harvest your crops for you can make you feel powerful. And rich. But the game has its own glitches.

1. It lags. The most frustrating characteristic of all online games.

2. It is addictive. A common problem for students who are aiming for scholarship, for mothers who have little children, for teachers who are to make their lesson plans, for nurses in the station, and a lot more.

3. The money is fictional. Despite earning hundreds of coins, you cannot use them in real life. How effing desperate.

One of these days, perhaps Farm Town will develop how to convert coins to real cash. Or so I dreamed.