Farmville, Social Gaming, and Addiction 251
MarkN writes "Facebook has been trumpeting the fact that Farmville, the most popular game on its site, has more users than Twitter, with 69 million playing over a month and 26 million playing each day. Combined with Facebook's announcement that they have hit 350 million users, that means one out of every five people on Facebook is playing Farmville. Gamasutra has a post taking a critical analysis of Farmville, its deceptively slow level grind, how a number of gameplay features end up as simply decorative since they aren't balanced with the benefits of raising crops, and discussing why Farmville succeeds so well in virally spreading itself and addicting people."
Just seems like... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Unfriending due to Farmville (Score:5, Informative)
Due to Farmvilles massive spamming, and my inability to make it stop telling me when my sisters/friends/coworkers have found a new cow, I've actually resorted to unfriending people who are farmville addicts. My "newsfeed" went from updates on my friends lives to 3/4 farmville useless announcements, making it effectively useless. I was tempted to install the app to see if I could filter them somehow, but ultimately said forget it.
It's fine if people want to play games, but frankly, the rest of the world doesn't care or need to know that you planted seeds. If I installed a facebook app that broadcasted every time I got a green drop in WoW I'm sure my friends wouldn't be too happy.
Add to this the Mafia wars spam, and these stupid little apps have made a mess out of what was once a useful tool for me to keep on top of my friends day to day and related silliness.
It takes one click to block an unwanted application like Farmville from posting to your News Feed. There's a "Hide" option on any News Feed story which will block all posts from that application. Very useful.
Re:Social Networking groups (Score:3, Informative)
Except they aren't selling these games on Facebook.
It's a freemium model. Free to everyone, but you can also pay for premium features.
It already has access to your account (Score:1, Informative)
You don't have to use these apps for them to have access to your account: If your friends use the apps the apps can access everything your friends can access.
Re:Remember the privacy policy? (Score:2, Informative)
not only that, but how many of those accounts actually play the game?
I had a look at it a while ago and half the people who 'play' it.. well appear to have planted a few crops and then never touched it again.
Re:But how do I block ALL applications? (Score:2, Informative)
http://lite.facebook.com
Anon Coward delivers.
Re:Unfriending due to Farmville (Score:3, Informative)
There's a much more elegant solution to your problem.
1) In Facebook's left column, select "Create a New List."
2) Call it "Non Bozos."
3) Select every non-Farmville playing friend who you actually want to be part of your news feed.
4) When you're finished, click your "Non Bozos" list, and you'll see a news feed made up of just those people.
5) Bookmark that page, and make that bookmark the normal way you visit Facebook from now on.
This will solve your Farmville problem and also make your news feed experience 100 times better, since you'll only be getting updates from people you care about.
Re:Something I overheard (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Remember the privacy policy? (Score:1, Informative)
No, it "raises the question". "begging the question" is a type of logical fallacy.
http://begthequestion.info/
Re:Remember the privacy policy? (Score:5, Informative)
Remember that once the application has more than a million users, it can access not only your personal information, but everyone's personal information you can access.
You can disable [facebook.com] that.
Re:Better model than PS3/Xbox/Wii (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Not totally. (Score:4, Informative)
You can block applications on a per-application basis too. I've blocked everything people have invited me to, except for the two applications I actually use. Not as good as opt-in, but it does exist.