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With FarmVille, Zynga Joins the Facebook Farming Fray
July 15th, 2009
| By Christopher Mack | 70 Comments » |
Farming games are the most popular games on Chinese social networks, and they’re starting to gain more steam on Facebook now too. The first was myFarm, but then SlashKey.com came along and had much more success with Farm Town (which actually debuted at #4 in the Top 25 two months ago and is still pretty popular today). Though it wasn’t an original concept, the virtual farming game was still pretty good. Now, another clone has emerged: FarmVille.
Farmville is from Zynga, a company that has made a name for itself by acquiring or emulating many of the most successful games on Facebook and MySpace.
Currently, FarmVille has about half as many features as its predecessor. In Farm Town, players are able to travel around to the market and local inn to interact with other players. FarmVille limits players to their own farm and their surrounding neighbors.
Like the other farming titles, players plow land, grow crops, and harvest them for money with the sole objective of creating an aesthetically pleasing virtual environment that allows expression of oneself. For each action done, players earn experience and work towards new levels that unlock better and more interesting items and crops.
One main thing that seems to be different is the items one can buy. One of the chief complaints for Farm Town was the high cost of items and the relatively low income, but that isn’t the case with FarmVille. More items tend to be available at lower levels and for more reasonable amounts of coin. A cow, for example in the Zynga app is 300 coins while a chicken in slashkey’s title is 500. Granted, there are far more animals available in the latter, but most are locked until much higher levels anyway.
Visually, the game does look good, but it looks rather familiar, using the same art style of Farm Town. However, Farm Town uses a style awfully close to Zynga’s YoVille, so the circle of imitation goes full circle it seems. In FarmVille, each item has a cartoonish feel to it and fits well with the visual style. A tree has the same art style as a crop, while in Farm Town it looks more like a photograph. Ultimately, the visual design in FarmVille is excellent, but the game play still leaves a lot to be desired.
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July 16th, 2009 at 4:46 am
[...] Perhaps signifying our repressed longing to connect to a more physical world, virtual farming is all the rage [ISG] [...]
July 28th, 2009 at 8:00 am
[...] do spend a lot of money on advertising when we want to, like when we launched Farmville,” Pincus said. “We spent a couple million dollars advertising it and we’re not [...]
August 2nd, 2009 at 10:29 pm
farm ville games on facebook I PLAY FARM VILLE
August 11th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
cant play farmville it will not load
August 12th, 2009 at 2:43 am
Need some new farmville neighbors. Anyone want to join our merry little band of newbies and experience farmers? Find us on face book.
Hope to have new neighbors. Thanks D
August 12th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
[...] knew? According to Inside Social Games, farming games are the most popular games on Chinese social networks, and they’re starting to [...]
August 17th, 2009 at 7:17 am
this game farm ville is a nice game
September 1st, 2009 at 10:37 am
[...] of humble farming! While it was last month that Zynga reached the #1 spot with its brand new title, FarmVille, this month proves to be no different. However, while the standings are the same, the numbers [...]
September 1st, 2009 at 11:34 am
You bet its nice and fun to play farmille but most of the time it doesn’t download sick and tired of it
September 2nd, 2009 at 12:49 pm
[...] as a result. Zynga notably spent a couple million dollars to advertise its hit new game, FarmVille, starting in June. Its spending on Facebook’s own advertising service has been successful [...]
September 5th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
like this game
September 7th, 2009 at 2:27 am
I cannot get to my farmville, and don’t know who to contact. I can to facebook but not farmville.
September 8th, 2009 at 4:39 am
i like this game
September 9th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
I love this FarmVille.. you rock!!!!
September 28th, 2009 at 7:31 am
[...] Zynga’s hit virtual farming game FarmVille reached 50 million monthly active users this past week, and led our AppData application growth leaderboard with 4.21 million new users. The app is now one sixth the size of Facebook itself, going by the platform’s recently-announced 300 million monthly active users. [...]
October 1st, 2009 at 8:35 am
[...] month records were set by the astounding growth of Zynga’s FarmVille. However, those records have been broken again this month, and more and more new faces appear on [...]
October 2nd, 2009 at 12:34 pm
[...] games: Zynga launched FarmVille in June, long after other companies offered similar virtual farming games — but Zynga’s [...]
October 12th, 2009 at 4:59 am
Why can’t I open my farm or go to neighbor’s farm?Please help,The farmville display goes on and on.
October 12th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
All animals on my farm and my neighbor’s farms have disappeared from my computer. They can see my animals and theirs but I cannot see theirs or mine. The spaces where the animals were are unusable.
October 25th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
this is going to be fun
October 27th, 2009 at 2:47 am
Bonjour, dans ma ferme ville, je ne parviens pas à vendre de produits….. 9à ne fonctionne pas, merci de me donner une solution
November 11th, 2009 at 8:35 am
Why am I unable to view and play my farm or my neighbors farms?
November 16th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
I am very upset,besides finally getting reconnected this afternoon after being off farmvilles radar for a day and a half.Loosing crops and now unable to keep requests sent to me after accepting them. You go and tell me that I have ignored them,when in fact I have not.grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
November 17th, 2009 at 5:12 am
i don’t know how to play it..but i think it’s fun..so i have to play this game…!
November 18th, 2009 at 10:22 am
I aways have “done with errors on page” when I go to Farmville. What is wrong? Farmville is my favorite farm to play.
November 27th, 2009 at 10:40 am
[...] FarmVille has over 67.8 million monthly active users. So we decided to look into what works for all the [...]
November 27th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
farmville is great i hope there will be more fun in it guys you dont know how fun it is!!!!!
December 3rd, 2009 at 10:00 pm
love to play farmville but it accidentally cant load to my pc.try to help me in dis problem.tnx
December 4th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
GOOD PLAY
December 4th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
THIS GAM E IS NICE GAME
December 4th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
NICE GAME
December 4th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
GOOD GAME
December 5th, 2009 at 8:35 am
i like this game, but it can’t load to my pc.try to help me to fix the problem. thanks
December 5th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
I love playing farmville but I haven’t been able to get it to load in 2 days. What is the problem? I don’t want to have to restart. Is there something going on with farmville that needs to be corrected or is it just my computer?
December 6th, 2009 at 2:16 am
when I go to farmville I have “done with errors on page”, what is wrong,help me.
December 7th, 2009 at 2:09 am
8’s fun!
December 7th, 2009 at 2:12 am
i love to play farm ville but, i dont know how to log in , on my face book account .
December 8th, 2009 at 9:55 am
why dose farmville not load and allways says done with errors? i need the errors off im too old to have to deal with this, help me please. boots
December 8th, 2009 at 10:21 am
when i go from facebook to farmville, it starts loading, then says, done with errors, but it never comes on. what is the errors and why can i not get on farmville? boots sasser padgett
December 8th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
its frustrating, the error message now is “The page you requested was not found.”
the past days farmville is not accessible…would you know what’s happening? and care to tell us how to resolve this issue?
December 14th, 2009 at 10:56 am
I love Farmville,but it has been two days thay i cant play,cant load the game,can you help me?
December 14th, 2009 at 10:57 am
cant load the game for two days.
December 15th, 2009 at 9:07 am
I have had problems with Farmville for about four weeks now. Every now and again it loads but only for one day, after which it will not load for about a week. I last used Farmville on Friday 11/Dec and have tried several times a day to access it but it’s just not happening again. It’s so annoying, I have cleaned my cache out and have Flash Player installed etc etc. There were problems apparently with the program, due to the new holiday season gifts but I believe that is now resolved. Any ideas?
December 15th, 2009 at 9:17 am
I also get the same messages as some of the responses above i.e. “done with errors on page”
Does anyone reply to these messages by the way?
December 15th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
cant never get threw to play!!!!!!
December 16th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
i want to play!!! it want let me in!!!!
December 16th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
on my farmville i have sound but no picture what do i need to do
December 18th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Please FIX whatever is going wrong with viewing our farm in farmville.
December 26th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
farmville will not load through facebook says done with error.. or it will say done but have a white screen… HELP!!!!!!
December 28th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Ok let me see hummm. 1-now when i go to farmville i have to go and resign in to facebook to check things. 2- I have 100 gifts that my friends have sent but i cannot move them to my gift box so i can put them under the tree.3-I have 72 neighbors so it takes over 3 days for me to send all my neighbors gifts (up the total gifts per day we can send)-. 4-when i am farming and really busy here comes some kind of advertisment pops up on my screen and completle disrupts everything. I have even had to go back and resign into Facebook. Probable more Later) Other than that you guys are doing a great job and its going to get worse because more and more people are coming to Facebook. Have a great Day. ( Loyddean@hotmail.com)loyddean1934@yahoo.com. Don.t hate me for being a gripe but remember The ones making the most noise gets attention. All of you Have a Happy Newyear ) I will be selibrating my 75th and hope to make it to a 100 if i am healthy. Bye now Huggs to you all.
December 28th, 2009 at 11:35 am
oh 1 more thing, sometimes when i am working my farm almost half the screen is taken up by other things please let us use the complete screen. Sorry i forgot that
January 7th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
i dont like the fact that you can only buy one chicken coop but as many dairy farms as you want
January 11th, 2010 at 12:14 am
[...] month and was among the first superhits of a new gaming genre on social networks. Farmville was not the first but the most succesful social games…ending the careers and relationships of millions on the [...]
January 11th, 2010 at 9:47 pm
een having trouble getting Farmville to load I love farmville but it seems like every time something big goes on I cant get to load.
January 18th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
I can only play farmville on my laptop at my sister/brother house cause they have full internate service..but when im at home i have a webconnet jet..cause i have a laptop and tried google chrome nothing..ie8 nothing..i have done everything and nothing i even called my webconnect company and nothing ..they said the problem is in facebook….whats going on???desperate i want to play my farm at home..please help..i think the problem is over there..cause when u had a problem..before that i was playing at y home ….waiting for youre answer……….thanks………….
January 19th, 2010 at 11:17 pm
cant load farmville it stucks half way need help urgently
January 31st, 2010 at 6:58 am
i play farmville i can,t get it to load
February 1st, 2010 at 2:04 pm
I cant load any zynga games through facebook this has been a problem for a week now,ive got the updated flashplayer, cleared cookies ect. ive taken a laptop to a friends and loaded it perfectly whats going on zynga, the loading bar sticks half way through loading but the loading bar says done, ive even phoned my internet provider they assured me the problem is not with them. Can some help me please?
February 4th, 2010 at 9:05 pm
I accidently removed FarmVille instead of Farm Town on the applications, and don’t know how to retrieve it.
February 9th, 2010 at 7:10 pm
The Farmville loading bar sticks half way through loading but the loading bar says done.
Yes I updated flashplayer.
February 10th, 2010 at 5:12 am
i played farmville on the 8th of feb. i tried loading my farm on 9th it just would not. i realised that logo of farmville is also not displayed on my facebook home page. i was enjoying it and was on level 41 please help me
February 10th, 2010 at 11:07 pm
I can’t play farmville I receive gifts and send gift but my game does not load unless I update my adobe flash player please help me
February 15th, 2010 at 6:34 pm
help me i cant find farmville on my list of games
February 16th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
it’s been 3 days so far and i can’t get on Farmville at all……i’m able to play other games – but not Farmville…..Please help me
thank you
February 19th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
i am disappointed.. i have gotten 99 gifts and the game will not let me accept them!! i am getting ripped off!! i would like some answers! hate to play the game if i cant get my gifts that i have coming to me….HELP!!
February 21st, 2010 at 10:13 am
My Farm will only load hafe way .its Been 4 Days now ..Whats going on ? Like playing .But this sure is no Fun Right now ..Help get it Fixed .
Thank you
March 4th, 2010 at 9:30 am
Well here we go again ..7 days of not loading then was ok for 5 days ..Now back to loading hafe way ..What is going on ? Everyone on my facebook that plays is not happy with Farmville right now ..Help !!!! can you not fix it ?
Thank you
March 8th, 2010 at 7:42 am
can’t load my farm,laoding bar sticks halfway. how can i fix it really missing my farm
March 9th, 2010 at 5:18 am
I have alot of neighbors.But they are all taken away.It shows 0 leavel & 0 neighbors.I have tried to go through my farm ville page also to work on my neighbors farm and its hit & miss.I want my neighbors back PLEASEEEEE.
March 10th, 2010 at 10:59 am
My Farmville and all Zynga games won’t load, the loading bar gets stuck half way, it has been like this for weeks, I cleared cookies, I have the latest flashplayer ect ect. It is happening to alot of people, definately something wrong with Zynga.
PLEASE HELP