From today it is no longer possible to play FarmVille, the management simulator of a farm that was probably the most popular game in the history of Facebook and that a decade ago anticipated what would have been a piece of internet and certain online or smartphone games. . As announced in September by Zynga, the game's manufacturer, FarmVille closes because it needed Flash Player to work, a program that the Adobe company has decided to discontinue.
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However, only the first FarmVille will close. Instead, its expansions and sequels will continue to be available, which can also be played from smartphones and outside Facebook and which had arrived however when FarmVille had already given way to other digital games and activities. However, more than for what it had been in recent years FarmVille is remembered (although rarely celebrated and hardly regretted) for what it was and for the mark it left, still visible elsewhere today: “once FarmVille conquered Facebook” he wrote the New York Times “now everything is FarmVille”.
Released for the first time in June 2009, FarmVille – which could be played directly from Facebook – in less than two months reached 10 million daily active users and at its peak it reached 30 million daily active users. with around 80 million users accessing it at least once a month.
But going into it once a month wasn't the ideal way to get good results. In its simulation of the many activities of a farm, FarmVille required that its players access it constantly, so as to be able to optimize the productive activities of the farm and, for example, avoid losing the harvest. Alternatively, to make things more efficient and faster, the game allowed you to get bonuses by asking your Facebook friends for them (which was the basis of both the success of the game and the annoyance it generated in many) or to pay, with real money. , to get certain results. Apparently there were many who chose this second option, because in 2013 Zynga said that the total payments made to FarmVille exceeded one billion dollars.
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By many, especially those who did not play but found themselves surrounded by notifications from friends on Facebook wanting and in need of some help in the game, FarmVille was rather hated; or at least badly tolerated and taken as a model for many useless yet immersive digital activities in their own way. As early as 2010, for example, Time put it on its “50 Worst Inventions” list along with Segway, DDT, pop-up ads and paid public toilets. “Damn you, Farmville,” said the article, which continued: “The most addictive game on Facebook is hardly a game, it's more like a series of alienating tasks to be completed one after another. in a digital farm, spending time clicking here and there with the mouse “.
A couple of days ago, in commenting on the demise of FarmVille on Gizmodo, Victoria Song wrote: “If you've ever questioned your existence and wondered how it is that you, a generally rational person, are tempted by idea of spending time and even money on a bad video game, then you have to thank FarmVille “.
Not even in the world of video games, FarmVille achieved great acclaim: in 2010, when the game won a major industry award, there were boos in the audience. And Mark Pincus – CEO of Zynga when the game launched – said the company had trouble recruiting new developers, who felt that working on FarmVille would not be good for their career and reputation.
Yet, despite the very simple graphics and repetitive dynamics, FarmVille worked, it made many users of all ages who had never been before become “gamers” and, as the New York Times wrote, “helped to make Facebook pass from being a mostly textual place, where people went to talk about themselves and see what family and friends were doing, to becoming a time-eating destination “.
As often happens when something is successful, especially on the internet, FarmVille itself did not invent anything. Before FarmVille there were games on Facebook, many of which required you to wait a certain amount of time and log in constantly to make progress in the game. There were already those who allowed you to buy things for real money or use your friends to take advantage of the game. And, even, there had already been games like Happy Farm and Farm Town based on running a farm.
Evidently, however, FarmVille managed to put all the elements in the right combination and to come at the right time to have a great success, when Facebook, which had existed for five years, “was still in the early days of its attempt to devour as much internet and online games as possible. they were not yet the colossus they are today, “wrote the New York Times.
FarmVille peaked in early 2010, then players slowly abandoned their farms. In 2012 the game was the seventh most played on Facebook, and in 2016 it was no longer even in the top 100. Its sequel – FarmVille 2, released in 2012 – was a great success in absolute terms, but still nothing comparable to what FarmVille achieved. And the same goes for FarmVille 2: Country Escape, released in 2014.
FarmVille, however, made its mark in several other games – among others that followed: most notably, as Professor Ian Bogost explained to the New York Times, in the way it encouraged people to use others as resources for themselves and for the game they were playing. In other words, in addition to asking for money, FarmVille asked its players to actively move to make others become players too, basically delegating to them the task of recruiting new players, with the sole purpose of involving them, without then having with them particular interactions within the game. And then, again, for how the game was structured to require a constant return of its players: “The Internet is a bazaar of obsessive worlds where the goal is to get you back to doing what it offers, so that you have your attention, so to show you advertising or find other ways to generate value from your business “.
