by A. Jacobina Poulsen

Created on: January 31, 2010

Farmville is easily one of the most addictive of the social applications available on Facebook.  The reason for Farmville's popularity (it currently boasts over 11 million players worldwide) is that it offers something for everyone.  There is the satisfaction of reaping a harvest and watching the profits add up, the freedom to express your unique personality through designing your farm, the fun of collecting limited edition animals, buildings and decorations and, most importantly, there is strategy.

Experience points are the key to success and status in Farmville.  Although each farmer starts out equal, as you progress in the game you may see others start to far outpace you in levels achieved.  However, if you develop a superior strategy, you will soon catch up and surpass other players.

There are various ways to improve your strategy and maximize the experience points, or XP, gained through play.  Some of these require that you resist the impulse to buy new decorations or trees in the beginning and concentrate on crops.   Buy only those things that will advance your strategy.

 When you begin playing Farmville, your farm will consist of six plots of land.  The game provides you with some plots ready to harvest and others that will mature in two to three days.  Use the coins gained from harvesting to plow and plant new crops.  

Expanding your area of arable land is your first goal, because in the beginning, plowing and planting will be your primary source of both income and XP. What you plant will depend on how many hours you plan to play each day, whether you will visit your farm daily or twice weekly, etc.  Try to plant crops that will be ready the next time you log in.  For instance, if you will log in once per day, choose a crop that has a 1 day growing time.  This will render 1experience point for plowing and 2 points for each plot of seed planted. If you can visit twice per day, planting crops that will be ready sooner will yield 1 XP more, because you will need to plow between plantings.

Extra coins and XP can be obtained by "helping" your neighbors to clear their land of weeds or  crop-eating vermin and then fertilizing their crops and feeding their chickens.  If a neighbor has both crops available to fertilize and a chicken coop, you can gain 40 coins and 26 XP per neighbor.  Now you can see why the "social" aspect of Farmville is so important.
 
Farmville also offers several

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