Farm Town .....

Farm Town …..

Online games ……

I will have to tell you something before I go any further, I have never played online ‘games’ before In my life, in fact the only computer game I have ever really played is ‘Sims’, now I think most of you have heard about Sims. I was playing Sims quiet happily although I do not think the ’Sims’ people were very happy with me, they was not happy actually, could not form relationships, eat properly, they got depressed, only one family was ok and they went on to have a baby, and this is where I went wrong, I got so wrapped up in making sure the baby was well cared for I neglected the family, then because they were depressed one of them accidentally started a fire, and me being me, I panicked, while they were running around trying to put out the fire, call the fire brigade I was still panicking, while the whole place was blazing, and the worse thing happened yes, I killed the baby, I did not get it out, I was soo upset I have never been able to play the game since lol. 

I tell you, people who I know that play this game and i tell them what I did, they pee themselves laughing.

Now bear the above in mind, and it is a testament that I am no good at these sort of games at all.

So a week ago I was sent an invitation to this online game called ‘Farm Town’ now I have read up on this game, it was only started in February 2009 this year, it was given to 12 users on a very well known social network to try it out, and with the time from February to now which is the beginning of May 4, months in all, it has grown to over 4 million!! The makers do not advertise this game, you will not see it anywhere apart from on people’s profile’s on this social network.

So anyhow I was sent an invite by a friend to go play this ‘Farm Town’, so because of her, I went and signed up, its an easy game, nothing hard, nothing but literally farming, inviting other people to be you neighbours, you send and receive gifts, that can be from animals to trees, no people live with you on the farm, it is just you, tending it.

You also have to make a ‘buddy’ list these are people that you help harvest crops, they help you, you get more money if others harvest for you.

You also get two places to go to ‘hire’ people to work for you, if your buddies are not online, the market place and the inn, where most of them stand about begging for  work, mainly at the market, at the inn this is for purely socializing but people still go to beg for work.

Me, I go to the inn, go to the bar and then offer booze to everyone, hahaha ok its ‘cyber’ alcohol, but it is still funny, and usually I get to meet all sorts of people that I can add to my ever growing buddy list.

You get the drift? and it does make you interact with other people, over the 8 days I have been on this game, I am on it more often than I have ever been on anything in my life that is on the internet, in fact there is a ‘Farm Town’ forum, where you go and do what ever it is you need to do, you know what forums do.

Also I have noticed that some are rather addicted to the game, on it practically 24/7!! I am not naming names, but, setting the alarm clock to go off in the middle of the night so they can do a harvest, instead of, planning the planting so that you don’t need to do anything until you have had a good nights sleep.

Example, you can plant grapes, they take 4 hours and you get more points, then you get day plants, 2 days and so on, so tell me how you would plan that out? And believe me, people are openly admitting on the forum they are addicted hahaha … aww should not laugh because I can see why it is such a compelling game.

So I am thinking there should really be a ‘Farm-oholics- anon, seriously! I doubt it would help people much but it sure would make funny reading.

Now in all this as I said, you get to meet people from all over the world, I have a list now of where people come from, I tend to forget, and this does makes things easier as you know when they possibly will be online. Also you need to keep a tag on the time zone’s now that can be confusing as well.

I can honestly say that the main bulk of people I have met have been lovely, we laugh and chat about most things of interest, and I am really enjoying that.

Then you get the ‘trolls’ these are people that deliberately set out to cause conflict, upset and use bad language, that is a troll definition, oh yes look it up on the net, it will come back as …..

“In Internet terminology, a troll is a person who enters an established community such as an online discussion forum and intentionally tries to cause disruption, often in the form of posting messages that are inflammatory, insulting, incorrect, inaccurate, absurd, or off-topic, with the intent of provoking a reaction from others.” 

Now, believe me they are on Farm Town, there is a debate going on as we speak about, hiring people from the market, and you tell them what you  want harvesting, you also might say ‘not to touch your trees’, they agree, you give them the tools (by clicking on the person’s little person onscreen) and then they run amok … yes they chop everything, including your trees!!!    now you are sitting there and what can you do? Hence the thread on this behaviour on the forum, which is soo funny I might add.

So now we have ‘TREE TROLLERS’ hahaha

So after everything I have said here, and I do not know if you play these sort of games or not, are you wondering what my theory is on all this? Well let me tell you…..

Why do people deliberately set out to ‘troll’ …. cause trouble? My theory? ….

Because they are just downright nasty people, who have no social skills whatsoever!!

That’s the only thing I can think of, you could argue that they think it is funny, they do more than likely, because they enjoy the tormenting of others and see the reaction they get, but does that excuse them from the everyday politeness that should be, whether it is RL or on the internet?

Or I have a better theory …. They are just plain sad people, Who need to get a life!!

Laters Tatty xx

p.s. the photo here is of Sally's farm, shows how much planning and effort some people will put into this, nice though a?

*rolleye* generated.