I was once a farmer… but only on the FarmVille simulation social game.So at one point in my life, I have been planting cabbages, asparagus, spinach, artichokes ( I don’t even know what artichokes are, lol.). But that is in the digital farm, for I was a digital farmer. Although Time Magazine has called FarmVille as one of the “50 worst inventions”, I was once so addicted with this game.

It was the year 2009, I just arrived in Japan for my doctoral education. At the same time, Zynga developed FarmVille as a game on Facebook. Living in a cold countryside, I was so bored whenever I am back in my dormitory. I even finished the whole “Death Note” anime series in less than a week. Then I discovered FarmVille. I started playing until it became part of my daily routine. I was so hooked with FarmVille that I can still hear their background music playing inside my head until now.

Being a farmer in the game, i needed to plow the land, plant, grow and harvest crops, harvest trees and raise livestocks. The crops must be harvested on time or else they will perish. It sounded like a “series of mindless chores on a digital farm” (as what Time Magazine has said about the game), but the game gave me something to look forward to after a tiring day at the university.

Then, I got addicted to the game. I even created two more Facebook accounts just to give what I need for the tasks required by the FarmVille game. From a poor farmer, I became a “haciendero” (lol!!!).
At first, my farm looked so beautiful. I had villas, castles, parks and lots and lots of different animals. Until it became so overcrowded that my avatar can no longer move around. I even made a camp around my avatar, so it will not get lost around my farm (haha!).

The game began experiencing a decline in popularity starting 2011. They started to change the game, making a second farm that was interchangeable with the original one. I finally lost my interest in FarmVille and stopped playing.

FarmVille launched its sequel FarmVille 2 in 2012. This has erased my account with the whole of my hard-earned farm. Luckily, I took screenshots of my farm and kept it in an album on my Facebook.

Then, another Zynga game came, CityVille. I started playing the city building game for a while.

FarmVille still exists today but its popularity had considerably waned and ranked very low among Facebook games. On the other hand, CityVille has closed last year.