Putting the Fun Back in Farmville

by Sunflower

At which level did Farmville become less fun and more chore? Somewhere around level 31 is my answer. All players will have their own saturation point in any game unless the game keeps reinventing itself to keep players interested.

Since Sports Fan and I started playing ,Farmville has incorporated a few things:

1. added mastery levels for crops
2. provided vehicles
3. included various crops including flowers
4. changed up the market place
5. offering short term seasonal items (for eg green cows and crop circles)

Many of these changes are for the better but they dont add that "wow" factor that continuing players are looking for. For example, I am not enticed to plant over 1 xp crops in order to attain mastery in them. Not when there are 3xp peas to plant.

The flowers are a nice touch and are very pretty when they are fully grown so planting them adds to the aesthetic value of your farm.

But where is the fun?

The fun used to be trying to catch up with your Farmville playing friends and thinking up elaborate strategies to outwit them and prove your superior farmville techniques. After the peas were introduced most of that strategizing (except for the weekend blitz) kind of went out the window. Well, for me at least.

Therefore I am putting the fun back into farmville but thinking up designs to plant in my crops and deciding which crops go best with my designs. I was inspired by those pictures Zynga puts up when you log into Farmville, right before your farm is launched. One day I thought, "Hey, I can do that too."

Well, it is harder than it looks.

The first thing was to study those pictures and try to figure out just how those farmers created their designs. The second thing was to realise that you are an amateur and should really start with a few basic designs and work your way up.

So far I am having fun. My brain is once again engaged and now I am thinking of new designs for my farm. Let the good times roll.

One question I have for Zynga - When are you going to unlock those bigger farms? We have been waiting.

Happy farming folks!!!