by Paola Grochi

Created on: September 03, 2009   Last Updated: September 07, 2009

Farmville is a Flash based game by Zynga where the player needs to take care of a farm, including plowing and sowing, reaping crops, taking care of farm animals and trees, and the player sells their produce for "coins".

Starting off

When you first sign-up, you can choose the physical features of your farmer as well as its sex. Since you are given coins when you sign-up, you can start plowing soil right away by following the tutorial that will teach you the basics of the game. It's worth noting that activities such plowing and planting will cost you coins, but you will also earn experience points.

The icons

At the right-down corner you will find some icons. Those icons are meant to carry out the basic tasks such as plowing and planting, as well as deleting items.

The green tool (called the 'plow tool') is the basic tool for most activities. Click on green land and you will convert it into plowed, ready to plant land. When you are ready to plant something, go to the Market by clicking on the Market icon and choose from the various type of crops you can plant. At first it might seem overwhelming, since the variety of plants, trees, animals, decorations and buildings is quite wide.

There you can see how much each seed costs, how much will it sell for and how long does it take to be ready for harvesting. The same works for trees and animals.

As in most Facebook games, there are certain features exclusive for paying members. In Farmville, certain items are available for real cash only.

Playing the game

Now you are ready for planting a few seeds. The seeds range from 4 hrs to 4 days (real time) to be ready for harvesting, and you need to be careful to harvest them soon after that time or they will wither and die!

Friends or Neighbors?

Having friends in Farmville is useful, since every time you visit them you can help out in their farm and earn coins and experience points (just follow the instructions). You can also send them gifts every day, and usually, they will send you gifts back. The good thing is, sending gifts is free - you don't have to pay with coins nor real cash. It's a great way to get more items for free. However, even if your friends have added Farmville, you will need to send them an invitation to become "neighbors", which may take a few days.

But...

And there's always a 'but': there are a few disadvantages. First of all, the graphics and the overall performance of the game might get rather slow or freaky (sometimes my own farmer is 'naked' meaning without any of the features I chose for her).

Conclusion

All in all, it's a very nice game, with a lot of addictive potential. Great for children (managing games are great for improving managing and money skills) and great for any age.

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