Gaming by Obligation - Case Study: Farmville

Lets get one thing out right off the bat. I am a self-hating Farmville player. There. I said it. I honestly don't know how it happened. I was one of those people over a year ago that used to hate seeing those Facebook posts from my friend who, for some reason or another, kept finding lost cows on their farm that were looking for homes on my non-existent farm.

Awww. It may look cute and sad, but it has an agenda. An evil agenda.

As I started paying more attention to social media gaming trends, I decided I had better bite the bullet and see what this "Farmville" game was all about. It was supposed to be for research. Well, over a year later, I'm still "researching" it. Granted, I don't play it as much as I did at the beginning - I maybe spend 20 minutes a day tending to my fake, pointless crops and my peculiarly pixelated livestock. But for those 20 minutes, I am filled with a sense of determination - nay, a sense of calm determination. I feel like I am really accomplishing something, when in fact I'm accomplishing absolutely nothing when I could actually be accomplishing...well...something.

A Farmville player's worst nightmare - withered crops. (AKA, how the game forces you back)
Harvest on time. You don't want this on your conscience, do you??

Truth be told, while I don't consider Farmville to be an actual "game" (as do a lot of other people) it is a very interesting look at how the social media space has taken over our every day lives.

"Honey, you were supposed to take the dog out an hour ago!"
"Get off my back! I'm trying to teach my Farmville dog to roll over!"

While mindless clicking may seem pointless, it is strangely soothing, and it helps feed my closet obsessive-compulsive behavior. Similar to how kids love collecting things, I find myself with the desire to master every crop in the game, and collect every mastery sign. For those who don't know, mastering a crop requires you to plant and harvest a certain number of that crop, and when you are done, you get a sign to proudly display on your farm, showing your "accomplishment" to your fellow Farmville neighbors. Some can take you a week of constant planting and harvesting. Others, a few weeks. It all depends on your level of obsession.

Look ma! I've 'dun mastered 'sum crops, I did!

This is where the sense of obligation comes in to play. Since I've already invested so much time mastering these crops, I feel that if I stop now, I will somehow be failing myself. Silly, I know, but this is how they get you. And while you are toiling away trying to master crops, they release new crops, and despite the profanities that stream from my mouth from knowing that this will never end, the rage somehow converts itself to even more determination.

And so, this is the state of social gaming today. Some people have speculated that it will all come crashing down soon, and only quality games will remain. Gone will be the days where a social game will be a repurposed, repackaged marketing and metrics machine. Zynga, the maker of Farmville and other top Facebook games, has built their business model on numbers and hooks, and other companies like PopCap, makers of quality games such as Bejeweled and Peggle, have started calling Zynga out on their evil ways. I, for one, am all for a shift in social gaming where quality wins out over metrics.

If Farmville disappeared forever tomorrow, I would be free of its evil clutches, but unfortunately I would be back looking for that next pointless fix. Luckily, I'm working on a project of my own that will hopefully be that next pointless fix for other people in my predicament, but will do so with quality and charm rather than hooks and market research.

Yes, you've been properly warned.

5 Reasons Why Zombies Are Better Than Vampires

I felt this was more than an appropriate subject for my second entry. It may not be clear to you, my curious reader, as to why this is. Heck, it might not even be clear to me. October is just around the corner, and video games have lent themselves to zombies more and more lately. I like games. *shrug* I don't fight it - I just go where the electrical impulses in my brain take me.

Zombies. Ugly, foul, lumbering, one-track minded creatures. What's to like? Well, I don't know about you, but despite how it looks on the surface, I think zombies are much cooler than vampires. And I'm going to prove it to you.

Reason #1: Zombies Make Better Video Games


If you know anything about video games, you should be able to name a whole whackload of games that feature zombies. Even if you only play games casually, I bet you can name at least one.

Was it obvious?

A couple of my other personal favorites include Zombies Ate My Neighbors and the Resident Evil series. Truth be told, I've never played Left 4 Dead.

I consider myself to be a person who has played a lot of video games. Maybe not as much as a lot of other people, but I can hold my own. I can only name a few great games that feature vampires. That's not to say that there aren't some great ones out there (read: Castlevania), but in my experience, the pickins' are slim.

Reason #2: Zombies Are More Fun


There are so many instances that I can think of in gaming and film where zombies make for a hilarious and fun experience. When I think of vampires, I can't come up with very many instances where there was fun to be had. That isn't to say fun vampire occurrences don't exist. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one memorable film that I always enjoy watching, but overall, the numbers don't really hold their own against zombies in this regard.

"O RLY?!"

Reason #3: Micheal Jackson's Thriller


I'm not sure why, but dancing zombies just work. And if you add Micheal Jackson into the mix, it works really well. Now imagine a bunch of dancing vampires. Go ahead, I'll wait...

Can't do it, can you? Vampires are solitary creatures. Zombies function well in groups. Backup dancers also function well in groups. Logically, it just makes sense. Am I wrong?

Don't question it. Pop culture has spoken.

Reason #4: Zombies Aren't Complicated


What makes a zombie? Generally speaking, they are undead creatures who like brains, and can be killed by lopping their heads off. That's basically it. Vampires? Get out your checklist! They don't like sunlight, you can kill them with a stake to the heart, they don't like holy water or crosses, they feed on blood, they can turn into bats, you have to invite them in, and they can charm you just by looking in your eyes.

I don't know about you, but that's too complicated for me. Try and hold a conversation with a zombie and see how far you get. They're after one thing, and anyone with half a brain would interest them...see what I did there? Hiyooo!

Which brings me to my last reason why zombies are better than vampires.

Reason #5: Teenage Girls Don't Throw Themselves at Zombies


'Nuff said.

I dunno. I don't see it.

Reinventing Oneself

Is it just me, or does everyone feel like a portion of their identity expires every once in a while, and needs to be refreshed?

Revisiting my old blog, I couldn't help but notice how much I just wanted to delete it and just start from scratch, so I did! Why did I do this, you ask? Well, first of all, that is an excellent question. Lately, I've been feeling that a good chunk of my being is defined by the work that I do. If you've been paying any attention at all, you'll know that what I do is design and develop web games. 

I wouldn't consider myself to be a hardcore developer. Some people would say that I am part of a disappearing breed of hybrid designer/developers. My programming skills are mostly self-taught, and being a lefty, programming isn't exactly something I'm supposed to prefer doing. But I do, and I actually enjoy it. It allows me to build almost anything that my crazy imagination can come up with. I may not be able to do it as well as other people, but dammit, I do it anyway.

Hi diddly ho, my fellow left-erino!

So there you have it. I created this blog for the purpose of chronicling my epic journey as a left-handed game developer, both professionally and personally. Hopefully I won't look back at it three years from now and say, "man, what is this crap?", and hit the delete button again.