Money talks on Farmville. Hundreds of local Facebook users signing up to be virtual farmers on Farmville are opting for purchasing virtual currency in the game over weeks of hard work to compete with their peers.
Facebook users who have recently signed up for Farmville said that buying virtual currency in the online game is the only way they can ever match their friends in the game. A new user signing up for the game, often at the invitation of Facebook friends, is confronted with a tall order: how does one earn enough money on Farmville to compete with existing friends?
Technically with weeks of hard work involving repetitive tasks (like sowing berries and harvesting them at four hour intervals) the new user can earn enough farm cash but the idea of buying virtual wealth with real money is extremely tempting. “For five dollars one can buy 7,500 coins in Farmville, which is not all that expensive. For me it’s like paying for premium content online,” says 17-year-old Vrishchik Nanda, an online gamer who also dabbles in other Facebook games like Mafia Wars.
At the current exchange rate his purchase works out to Rs250. And this is the lowest in the spending ladder. “Seven thousand coins take you nowhere. People are dabbling in hundreds of thousands,” says Vartika Bahl, a graphic designer who got hooked to the game in its early days.
He adds, “I have never spent any real money in the game but looking at the amount of time I spend on it, I think I have invested a lot more.” Since its launch in June this year, the virtual farm has become the most popular Facebook application with 67.2 million users as of October 31.
The game is a big hit in India as it has been able to marry social networking with virtual world games. The
publisher of the game San Francisco-based Zynga has more than quadrupled its monthly users over the last six months, making Farmville the fastest growing applications on the internet.
Like other simulation games, one builds up to different levels and can purchase more and more items —- decorations, animals, trees and produce of higher wealth which then give a more substantial return. When a user accepts the application, the user is presented with a blank canvas with which the user is expected to create a virtual farm. Unlike other virtual reality universe games like Second Life where a user can re-convert virtual money to real world currency, in Farmville, there is no chance of real money coming back to a user.
A number of recently hooked users take breaks in their sleep to ensure they are able to make a move on time on Farmville. “Strawberries are planted at midnight and can be harvested at the earliest four hours later. I plant them at midnight and sleep and an alarm wakes me up so I can harvest them, do a little business and then go back to sleep," says Navneet Berry, a copywriter.
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