Tuesday, July 19, 2016

The Good Old Days of FarmVille?

Pokémon GO.  No, I'm not playing it.

No, I don't intend to play it.  And yes, there was this little privacy issue about it.  Surprised?

I learned my lesson several years ago,when I ended up becoming addicted to an online game played on Facebook called FarmVille.  I was addicted to it for some three years.

Yes.  I said it.  Addicted.  As in "spending hours on it".  As in "timing my life around certain crops maturing".  As in "my friends knowing when I was on vacation because my fields would lie fallow".  As in "reading blogs about".  Yup.  That was me.


I was so addicted that I even filtered the news through FarmVille, as the below post I am repeating from January of 2011 shows.

What broke my addiction was the fact that the game got glitchier and glitchier.  If it hadn't become so frustrating with all the outages, freezes, and other things that made it more and more difficult to play, I might still be playing it.  It took me a while to quit, even after several Facebook friends quit it.   But, until earlier this year, I still got occasional game-generated messages from people I used to play with.

Since then I have not accepted one game invite from anyone and do not ever intend to.  No Words with Friends.  No Candy Crush Saga (I think a friend of my mother in law, who is in her late 80's, is still trying to get her to play Candy Crush Saga). 

So, while I am thinking about FarmVille one last time as I ponder Pokémon GO, enjoy my post from the time of my addiction.

Do you play Pokémon GO?

Tracking the Revolution using FarmVille

The last 24 hours or so has been a surreal experience.

Yesterday evening I was on Facebook when a relative contacted me.  I have a cousin stationed in Tunis, Tunisia, and this relative had asked for everyone he knew to pray for the safety of the cousin and family. (If you haven't been following the news, do so:  there is quite an interesting political situation going on there right now.)  He gave me some updates and I decided I would try to friend the cousin's husband, who was posting several updates daily regarding their situation. His posts were pretty scary, especially the part about sleeping on the floor the night before with their children because of nearby gunfire.

So, while my spouse was on the phone with his family about a situation in his family, I was chatting with someone in Texas and trying to friend someone in Tunisia.

Anyway, I sent a friend request and when I came home from work tonight, I found he had accepted.  Now I can read his posts directly instead of getting them through the other relative.

I also had a pleasant surprise.  The cousin's husband plays FarmVille.  And, he had recently planted some 12 and 24 hour growth crops.

Farming during a revolution.  Now I will be able to track how stable his everyday situation is through how he plants his crops.  Or, maybe he is just an optimist.

Gives a new meaning to social gaming, doesn't it.

12 comments:

  1. This Pokemon Go thing is just a fad and like all fads it'll vanish as quickly as it started and everyone will forget it even happened.

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  2. Never got sucked into the craze. Now, I do play Scrabble- against my computer (level 8, equivalent to a PhD in English)- but no tracking, no waiting for a response (also have a 2 minute time limit for moves)....

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  3. Thank God, I never tried any of these games. Infact, till date I get those candy crush requests. Addictions are not good! :)

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  4. All I could think of when you were talking about FarmVille was the episode of "South Park" where Cartman gets hooked on the game, and Stan, who was signed up for Facebook against his will, shows up in the middle of the farm and starts tearing down crops. It's hilarious...

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  5. I too was addicted for some days to farmville but realized it requires a lot time and as you said there are security problems too on how others may easily guess about our whereabouts. Me too ignoring all candy crush invites now :-)

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  6. No PokemonGo, no Farmville, no CandyCrush Saga.. nothing doing for me. I know they're addictive. I find series way more better than playing games online... I'm glad you could come out of this addiction. It really kills time.

    Cheers

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  7. OK, no. I don't play FarmVille or Pokemon Go. I do play words with friends. It is starting to suck me into this mad obsession with seven letter words and what words do I make with the letter q that don't require a "u" and how do I use an X or a K and, all in all, I might be a little mad, like a certain hatter, lol.

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  8. I don't play Pokemon Go (yet), but I have friends who do and are having a great time playing.
    I do admit though, that I am addicted to Candy Crush!

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  9. I admit it, I'm on the Candy Crush. I'm all the way up at level 1619. But I won't announce on Facebook when I pass levels (even though the game prompts me to), and I don't message anyone about it. Especially not invites to play. Ick.

    I won't get on Pokemon Go, though. Not really my thing. But I hear my niece is playing.

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  10. I know quite a few who are still addicted to the online games...I never got caught up in them. Glad you broke free!!

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  11. I used to do the Farmville thing too... realized I was spending too much time on it and abandoned my farm... I wonder if its still sitting there, all brown and waiting for me to return?

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  12. I am addicted to sudoku. Math nut. I have seen guys driving through my sub and walking around - in a thunderstorm with a toddler no less- holding their phones on high and looking for Pokemon. The police had to chase them out of the parking lot on their property. Nearby some idiot wandered into a police station and they arrested him on an outstanding warrant. The privacy issue is a big deal. I thought the guy in the car was casing the neighborhood for a house to rob.

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