Thoughts on playing Farmville and Cafe World on Facebook

It's possibly addictive. It's silly. It makes you want to get up in the morning – as you may have a dish to serve (in the Cafe) – or some stuff to harvest (on the farm) - - and if you don't perform the actions at the right time – or within a few minutes (in fact I don't know how much lee-way you are given – I get the feeling that is is variable – according to how long it took the dish to cook – or the plant to grow – longer time frames – giving more minutes lee-way - (I guess these games have something in common with the tamagotchi that the children have – or had – maybe they've gone out of fashion now – have they? - -
what do you learn? - Well – possibly nothing – - I can it depends how you want to play the game. - You might just be happy to play and wait for what happens – if you start to play it strategically - - it then depends what your goals are. - The friend who got me started on the whole thing told me that “the idea is to make as much money as possible”. - But I don't fancy playing it like that – that would be too tiring and too demanding. - That way I would be having to throw myself into the games. - Still if that is your aim – then you could start to think of how much money you can make from each crop (on the Farm) (or each dish in the Cafe). At the moment, I'm not writing things down – I'm just doing calculations in my head – to think of when things will be ready – will that correspond to a moment in time when I'm likely to be around to deal with it? - In fact you can then start to calculate how much money it's costing you to “buy” the crop – or the dish – and how much you can get form it if it is harvested (or served up and eaten) as expected.


The Cafe has an extra feature – which depends on getting a “thumbs up” from your customers. - I think you get a “thumbs up” from each one that sits down and is served with a dish relatively quickly. If there's no food ready for serving – or too many customers relative to the number of people serving – the customer may get up and go – and so that way you start to loose brownie points – I guess the disgruntled ones start telling their pals.


You can get your friends involved in your game as well. In fact the reason I got involved to start off is that a friend in real life saw me and asked if I would be a farm “neighbour”. - Well she sent me a request and I lost it. Then a few days later I found it and started playing. And after that I also invited people who are my “Facebook Friends” - whom I was told are also “Farm users” - or “Cafe users” - - and I invited them to be neighbours to my Farm or cafe. - Unbeknown to a couple of friends – their characters (aha – avatars!!) are serving in my cafe. - I don't think they know. Anyway each character that comes into the cafe has a name over their head. (Each name corresponds to a friend of mine on Facebook). So in a way I'm watching “my friends” come into my cafe!

For the first few times that you play either game, you are only allowed a certain size of cafe or farm and a limited number of dishes or crops. As you get more “proficient” you move up the “proficiency ladder” and you get an award – and can publish the news on your Facebook page – and so on. For some people, their aim might be to keep moving up the ladder rather than make as much money as possible. - But I guess the two things go together, as you need “money” to do things. - Ah yes. It seems that if you don't have enough “money” to do what you want, you can “buy” money – and it seems that this involves getting out your credit card – and using real real money – I haven't tried this!

You can go and visit your neighbour's farm (and give them some “help” for which you both receive a reward) – same is true for the cafe. - And you can send a gift to other Facebook users. Such a gift would only be useful if they are playing the appropriate game – but it could obviously be used as a way of dragging them in to play that game.

So. It's fun. It could be addictive. - It can see you interacting with friends that you have no real need to speak to – or nothing special to say – but they can help in your “fun”. Who does it appeal to? - I don't know. - I think probably females – I don't know. I guess the company that is marketing these games (Zynga Games) are collecting all these statistics - Oh no – I've just discovered that you can become a fan of Farmville – and you can then learn about all the new features that they are developing – well – that's quite helpful – as it gives you some background on what they are developing (like – being able to “fertilise” your neighbours fields – and so they grow better – (not faster) )– and so yield more money – to them. It said that they tried this out with a few “Farmers” and then made the feature available to others. - You can even get a weekly Podcast. - I clicked on that – and it said it's in “Beta”. - The Cafe World is also in “Beta” - so does this mean these games are really new? Well yes...
Wow - - this is what wikipedia says about it:

FarmVille is a real-time farm simulation game developed by Zynga, available as an application on the social networking website Facebook. The game allows members of Facebook to manage a virtual farm by planting, growing and harvesting virtual crops, trees, and livestock.[2] Since its launch in June 2009,[3] FarmVille has become the most popular game application on Facebook with 56.1 million active users in October 2009.[4]

The value for the MAU over the last 90 days – from 14 million to about 60 million. What's MAU?


Some links that are relevant to this sort of gaming
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article6888156.ece
http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/06/zynga-farmville/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FarmVille
http://www.farmville.com/
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/zyngas-farmville-becomes-largest-and-fastest-growing-social-game-ever-2009-08-27
http://gameolosophy.com/games/farmville-the-unofficial-strategy-guide/
http://www.appdata.com/facebook/apps/index/id/102452128776
http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2009/10/08/zyngas-cafe-world-goes-from-0-to-8-6-million-users-in-a-week-with-big-implications/
http://www.insidevirtualgoods.com/us-virtual-goods/

Wordle image of the first three posts

Click to see the wordle image - a mish-mash of words!

If your New Year Resolution is to get fit

OK if your New Year Resolution is to get fit how are you going to go about it? Well you could do Tai Chi with the Chinese Community Centre in London Road, Sheffield or get a set of swimming lessons for £10 at pools in Sheffield like Heeley Swimming Baths (Broadfield Road Sheffield S8 0XQ telephone: 0114-250 0443).
After that you could get a bicycle from Recycle Bikes (or get your old one serviced by them and get cycling). If you are a bit unsure about how to go about riding a bike on Sheffield’s roads (well it’s not as obvious as you might think) – then contact the PedalReady trainers and get a free 2-hour coaching session (paid for by Sheffield City Council who want to encourage us all onto bicycles). If you want to get to know other cyclists, and maybe go on outings with them, then ask your trainer for ideas (family rides, women only rides, very easy rides etc) – or ask CTC. Now if an ordinary bicycle isn’t right for you then pretty soon a group called “Cycling Projects” are hoping to come to Sheffield with a fantastic array of bicycles for people with all sorts of disabilities. If it all works out, you will be able to go along to a session in a park (perhaps Hillsborough Park) and try out a fabulous bicycle for a half hour session or so. – I tried these out at the Cycling Festival at the end of August 2008. I really liked the one where one person sits in a comfy chair – and the person behind them cycles. I suppose that’s a bit like a rickshaw. Fine – as long as you are on the flat!
If Football is your sport then contact FURD (Football Unites, Racism Divides) based with Sheffield United. - Their website talks about racism in sport – and ways to tackle it – but they seem to do football coaching for free. Is this too good to be true? And what’s that about the team called “Sharrow United”?

Feel like running half marathons? Well there’s one on Sunday 26th April 2009 at Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield. (If you see me there it will be as a spectator or to do the 3K "Fun Run".) Could you do it for a local charity and get friends to sponsor you so that you can raise money for your charity? There’s a 10K run in Sheffield on 6 September 2009. Have you got enough time to get into training for that?

Is walking a possible idea? There are walking groups in Sheffield for people of every age and ability and inclination. If you want a gentle walk that lasts no longer than an hour, then have a look for the Health Walk that is nearest to you. These are organised by Sheffield’s Health Rangers and many are led by volunteers. Speak to a Health Ranger or just turn up if you find there’s one in your area. There’s no cost to walk but there might be a hot cup of tea and a biscuit at the end and you might be asked to contribute 30p or 50p to the cost if you stay for refreshments. The Ramblers are a walking group that have walks for people of all abilities. According to their website they organise:

Our short ‘Walking Out in Sheffield’ walks programme is designed for people new to walking or coming back to it after a break, or people who would just like a shorter walk. Each walk is about two or three hours at a gentle pace. There is a walk on the first Saturday of each month, and the third Thursday.

What sport have I forgotten?

Palestine

Everyone is talking about Palestine. Well perhaps not enough people but at least some journalists on the BBC and Aljazeera and concerned citizens in campaign groups like the Palestine Solidarity Campaign(PSC), Stop the War, Respect, Avaaz. Friends are emailing other friends asking for support and inviting participation at demonstrations like the one in Sheffield today or the ones in London tomorrow, Thursday and Saturday.

Blogs
Are there many blogs being written from Gaza? There’s the one written by the Free Gaza Movement and it talks about quite a few others:

"News from Internationals in Gaza
There are several international human rights observers from the Free Gaza Movement and other groups currently in Gaza. See, for example, Vittorio Arrigoni's quote of the week below and his Italian blog at http://guerrillaradio.iobloggo.com, Sharon's blog at http://talestotell.wordpress.com and Eva's at http://ingaza.wordpress.com. Video interviews with the prolific journalist Ewa Jasiewicz, Jenny Linnel, Fida Qishta and more can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/user/lowvoicesloud. Also visit the new blogs http://gaza08.blogspot.com and http://www.savegazanow.blogspot.com. Since an air raid by the Israeli Air Force led to the injury of one and the death of another Palestinian doctor on December 31th and five more Palestinian medics on January 4, International Solidarity Movement and Free Gaza Movement volunteers will be accompanying medical teams throughout the Gaza Strip. In an effort to document the war crimes being committed by the Israeli military operation in Gaza, the internationals will be joining Gazan medical teams in shifts, both governmental and NGO hospitals. Volunteers expressed their concerns about the violation of Articles 19 and 21 of the Geneva Convention, which state that medical facilities and vehicles are to be protected from warfare. See http://www.palsolidarity.org/main/2009/01/01/human-rights-activists-to-accompany-medical-teams-in-gaza/"


Photos and Videos
How else can you find out what is happening there? Any heard of the Ramattan News Agency? It says it is “ an independent news agency in the Middle East offering full service support to TV stations.” and that it has “offices in Gaza, Ramallah, Cairo, Jerusalem, San'aa, Kuwait, Darfor and Al-Khartoum.”

Where else do you look for information? On Flickr - but be warned – keep a hand on your mouse ready to hit the stop button! You can only take so much of that! You Tube? Well IDF - The Israeli Defense Force has launched its own YouTube channel to cover the current conflict in Gaza. You can also see videos about Gaza put up by all sorts of people. What about Social networking sites? How useful are they to finds out about what is happening? Anyone had a look? Indymedia have lots of photos of Saturday’s demonstration in Sheffield. Then of course there's wikipedia. It has articles on Palestinian Territories and the Gaza Strip.

Hot news from this year

What’s in the News? Who is talking about the Asylum System? One is “Liberal Conspiracy” talking about the current asylum system in Britain and how Britain is taking steps to limit the number of people arriving in our land. It argues that we need to rethink not just how to respond to people who come and need our help when they have fled from persecution in their own land, but also what can be done to stop a despot in one country sucking out the resources from that country and leaving its people in poverty and chaos (and so needing to flee) . Another is “Immigration Prof Blog” which names three American law companies which have done “Pro Bono” work for some Iraqi Refugees, that is they worked “for free”. (Do lawyers like using Latin so that ordinary people don’t understand?) Yes of course, someone fleeing persecution may not have the cash in their pockets to pay a lawyer straight away, but shouldn’t any legal system make provision for free legal representation of someone who is fleeing persecution? (Or at least allow someone to work and earn the money they might need to contribute to the legal fees?) How are things organised in the UK? Who gets a good quality of service from lawyers? How could that be improved? There’s a chilling story at the top of an article set again in the United States, it tells of how a woman was deported to her country in Africa by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) more than 10 years after she had fled to the US. From Dublin, Ireland, there’s a report headed “Support centre for torture victims forced to cut staff”. Well they may still get the money they need!