by Roberta Velyn

Created on: August 02, 2009   Last Updated: August 08, 2009

It begins with an invitation from a Facebook friend to accept a Farm Town gift and send one back to help out your friend. Why not? You click on the request and find that you must register for the game in order to complete the request. Simple enough: answer a few easy questions and you're in the game. You select hair color and style, facial features and skin color for your avatar (game character), give yourself a farmer name, and name your farm. It turns out that in order to send a gift you must accept your friend's invitation to be a neighbor. Since you've been invited, a screen appears asking if you'll accept that invitation, you check the "yes" box, and voila! At the bottom of your farm there appears a set of boxes with a picture of one neighbor and spaces to add more.

Each time you log on to Facebook you see new Farm Town gift requests. You accept them one by one, and go to your little farm to place each gift (tree, flower or farm animal) where you want it. Up pops an invitation to go to a friend's farm to help out - rake up leaves, water the plants, etc., and when you do that you see muted announcements floating above your avatar's head: 5 coins earned, 2 experience points. You notice at the top of the screen a monitor that progresses each time you earn points. It's labeled with a farmer description and there's a number "1" in a circle after it. When you go to your neighbor's farm you see that he has a more complimentary label and a higher number in the circle. You also see that he has buildings, fences, paths, ponds, and assorted farm accessories, some of which you can purchase in the store, but many of which are displayed but labeled "Locked" until you attain a certain level.

Your farm starts out as green grass on which you arrange the fruit trees, flowers and animals that friends have given you. After a few days your fruit trees display ripe fruit and you can click on a scythe icon that lets you harvest the fruit and either sell it in the marketplace or put it in storage for later sale. You earn more by placing the harvest in storage and then selling it, but the immediate sale option is there for those in a hurry.

Clicking on a rake icon lets you plow your land. You can then go to the store and purchase seed to plant. Choices are limited, but you can see that other seed choices will become available when you reach a higher experience level. Raspberries take only two hours to ripen, grapes take four hours, and other crops take anywhere from one to

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