Farmville and Mafia Wars -Do you consider that gaming?

[rpepper9]

So I always though of myself as a bit of a "gamer". I never got into PC gaming so I always thought of "gaming" as playing my consoles, connected to the TV. Recently I have been playing a bit of Mafia Wars and Farmville on FaceBook, and I was wondering how many people consider that "gaming"?

Technically Farmville is quite similar to Harvest Moon, and Mafia Wars it probably similar to countless games with a similar theme. So would I be considered "gaming" if I am wasting time at work playing?

[hellfire]

Its gaming, trust me. My dad is one of the top players in myspace mafia wars

[Snapple]

There's more gameplay in Farmville than some of the shovelware I've seen for DS and Wii.

That being said, Farmville is still evil, and it's a horrible, pointless game.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Yeah. I don't play them, but I know a lot of people who do. I don't see a difference between playing a game on Facebook or a mini game on a Wii like the Rayman series. A video game is a video game whether it be: 2-D, 3-D, flash based, or even text-based.

[Gameguy]

It's still a video game, just like computer Solitaire is a video game.

[Superman]

Another vote for: Yes, I would consider them gaming.

[Mianrtcv]

like a point & click type text adventure in a way.

[jb143]

Heh, this is getting a better responce than my "Do you consider Captain Power a video game" thread I made a while ago.LOL

I'm not quite sure I "get" them(probally because I've never really tried them) but I would call them games. Social network games like these are supposed to be the next big thing from what I've been gathering on game development forums.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

Consider this:
60 million people play Farmville.

Would you consider that the next big thing for games, jb? :)

[PapaStu]

It's gaming in the sense that its a time management game. Maximize your energy to level up the fastest (in Mafia Wars sense) or plant the crops and rank them up in Farmville's sense.

Zynga has alot of issues with how they run things (there are some serious privacy issues being brought up), not to mention how they run the games themselves. MW has for Facebook alone 3 or 4 base games ( in New York) depending on when you started and they've made no attempt to balance the gameplay between the groups (or between Facebook and MySpace which is eons behind Facebook MW). Farmville is hugely dependant on getting real money from people for the digital crap that would be considered 'desirable' and your ability to earn the 'bucks' to get the goods is horribly neutered in the game.

Both games (which by far are the biggest players for Zynga) are riddled with glitches. I won't go into the numerous issues/problems they've been through as its almost too many to count and they can change on a weekly basis as the new content gets rolled out.

Eventually that train will wind itself down (thanks mostly to horrible Zynga mismanagement), but it'll be a while as they have enough to keep people coming back into them day after day, especially considering that for the most part its like Animal Crossing, you don't either need to spend much time in it (Mafia Wars) or you don't notice that you sunk an hour into the farming/helping others/designing a farm (Farmville).

It's also very Animal Crossing like because the tasks are for you to decide. Some people care about the ribbons (achievements) or the crop masteries, others care about farm design or getting all the crap (and dumping teh 2k monies to do so) in FarmVille. Same with Mafia Wars, some are in it to 'complete' an area, others are there for the fighting/item aquiring and some are there to just be able to level up over and over. It's so self paced/controlled that its not even funny.

Having said that, i've got a level 400+ MW account that i've been playing since this time last year and a level 42 FV account that I started just after the beta for it went live last summer. I don't spend any real time in any other social networking games and I've never spent a dime on either game and I never will. It works for me in the sense that its not a game (or activity) that really requires devotion to get good at/become engrossed in to enjoy. I go harvest my shit, do some jobs and then go do some real gaming on one of my systems.

[Oobgarm]

There's more gameplay in Farmville than some of the shovelware I've seen for DS and Wii.

That being said, Farmville is still evil, and it's a horrible, pointless game.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner.

[Enigmus]

I say fuck no to both.

They're both horribly coded pieces of time-wasting hogwash that give more computers STDs (viruses) than people do from a prostitute's toothbrush! Ever heard of someone playing Farmville and the next day, a "MyWebSearch" toolbar appears? It's the modern day equivalent of the infamous AIDS horror story of the 1980s. They're virus-ridden idiot distractors! If I wanted Farmville, I'd play Sim City 3000 or SimFarm, and if I wanted Mafia Wars, I'd do the online mode of Grand Theft Auto IV! I'll stick to the real deal and let the idiots play the poorly done ripoffs. Fuck the Facebook games, I'll use the GOOD games. :bad-words:

[megasdkirby]

I can't stand either.

Friends and family who play these silly games spend too much time on nonesense.

I don't care about my village.

I don't care if I see I defenseless chicken...unless it's for me to eat.

It's so pointless.

[MASTERWEEDO]

My mom plays this obsessively. I dont have a facebook, cuz i dont want to play that damn game, or the fish one.

[Famidrive-16]

"god these games are pointless!!!"

*plays old shitty game boy game no one cares about*

[Gameguy]

I just remembered that there was a woman on Dr. Phil who played the Facebook farm game non stop. She took care of that farm and watered all the crops, fed all the animals, instead of taking care of her children. She actually had to be on Dr. Phil because of that game, and she admitted on the show that she was worried that her crops/animals would die because she was on the show instead of playing the game.

[Juganawt]

It is gaming. Casual, crap gaming, but gaming nontheless.

Saying that however, I can't wait to play Civ Network when it's released!

[Daria]

rpepper what game is that in your avatar?

And yeah, if I tried to explain Harvest Moon to people at work they'd look at me like I had two heads. But Farmville? Totally socially acceptable. Life can be so unfair. :P

[garagesaleking!!]

I used to play farmville and cafe world nonstop, but got to the point where I said I am too good at these and need to get a life, and quit playing, I have a feeling all the facebook games are going to eventually crash in popularity. Everyone I know that used to play them has stopped.

[skaar]

"god these games are pointless!!!"

*plays old shitty game boy game no one cares about*

I laughed at this one for a long, long time.

[k8track]

I consider them a scourge, an invasive cancer.

[jcalder8]

Why wouldn't they be gaming?

[diskoboy]

I'll use this analogy: Zork wasn't a 'game' like we came to know them, but people still consider it a video game - and a classic, at that.

So my answer is: Yes, but I don't play them.

And Civilization is coming to facebook, too... It ought to be interesting to watch everyone get cracked out on Civ for Facebook.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/10/21/civilization-network-announced-for-facebook-arriving-in-2010/

[portnoyd]

Oh jesus Civ. I've been holding out on Facebook but that may be what causes me to make the jump.

Otherwise, the Zynga games are games, but very poor attempts at them, from what I've seen over someone's shoulder.

[hbkprm]

fuck no!

[diskoboy]

Oh jesus Civ. I've been holding out on Facebook but that may be what causes me to make the jump.

And unlike most of the more recent offshoots of the Civ series, Sid Meier is actually involved with this one.

I'm sure my facebook page is gonna be flooded with Civ updates, soon enough.

I just signed up to hopefully be a beta tester! :)

[Ed Oscuro]

Anybody remember Vagabond's Quest +? That was the prime rib right there (in like 1998)

[rpepper9]

rpepper what game is that in your avatar?

And yeah, if I tried to explain Harvest Moon to people at work they'd look at me like I had two heads. But Farmville? Totally socially acceptable. Life can be so unfair. :P

Brain Lord

Crimson Jade- Poop is inside. Uses Fireballs. How Poop uses fireballs is beyond me, but apparently it does!

[bacteria]

My wife loves Mafia Wars, Farmville and Cafe World.

They are nice "cutsie" games for sure, ideal for people with slow reactions and a game you can't win or lose in but just "take part in".

Not my idea of enjoyable games, but millions upon millions play them, so it shows how good they have been at getting people playing games, which is very positive.

[GuyinGA]

My dad's addicted to Mafia Wars.

I consider it to be pointless level-grinding without a finite end. You just as well play a real game like Baldur's Gate than this crap.

[namzep]

I have to admit I'm adicted to Mafia Wars and just started playing Farmville. They're basically good wastes of time when I'm at work, not doing anything. Would rather play real games at home, though.

[misfits859]

Castle Age!

[Daria]

Brain Lord

Crimson Jade- Poop is inside. Uses Fireballs. How Poop uses fireballs is beyond me, but apparently it does!

Firery poops sound painful.

[rpepper9]

It's gaming in the sense that its a time management game. Maximize your energy to level up the fastest (in Mafia Wars sense) or plant the crops and rank them up in Farmville's sense.

Zynga has alot of issues with how they run things (there are some serious privacy issues being brought up), not to mention how they run the games themselves. MW has for Facebook alone 3 or 4 base games ( in New York) depending on when you started and they've made no attempt to balance the gameplay between the groups (or between Facebook and MySpace which is eons behind Facebook MW). Farmville is hugely dependant on getting real money from people for the digital crap that would be considered 'desirable' and your ability to earn the 'bucks' to get the goods is horribly neutered in the game.

Both games (which by far are the biggest players for Zynga) are riddled with glitches. I won't go into the numerous issues/problems they've been through as its almost too many to count and they can change on a weekly basis as the new content gets rolled out.

Eventually that train will wind itself down (thanks mostly to horrible Zynga mismanagement), but it'll be a while as they have enough to keep people coming back into them day after day, especially considering that for the most part its like Animal Crossing, you don't either need to spend much time in it (Mafia Wars) or you don't notice that you sunk an hour into the farming/helping others/designing a farm (Farmville).

It's also very Animal Crossing like because the tasks are for you to decide. Some people care about the ribbons (achievements) or the crop masteries, others care about farm design or getting all the crap (and dumping teh 2k monies to do so) in FarmVille. Same with Mafia Wars, some are in it to 'complete' an area, others are there for the fighting/item aquiring and some are there to just be able to level up over and over. It's so self paced/controlled that its not even funny.

Having said that, i've got a level 400+ MW account that i've been playing since this time last year and a level 42 FV account that I started just after the beta for it went live last summer. I don't spend any real time in any other social networking games and I've never spent a dime on either game and I never will. It works for me in the sense that its not a game (or activity) that really requires devotion to get good at/become engrossed in to enjoy. I go harvest my shit, do some jobs and then go do some real gaming on one of my systems.

So the consensus is that they are games. I was wondering what the above quote is referring to when they say there are "riddled with glitches." I have had to reload my farm a time or two because "my game was out of sync with the server" but I always thought that may be because of my poor DSL speeds.

What kinds of glitches have there been in Farmville and Mafia Wars (the two games I play)?

[buzz_n64]

They are games, crappy time wasting games with no winners, but still games. I don't play that crap, I'd rather play Shaq-fu on Genesis and Pac-man on 2600 than play that crap.

[PapaStu]

So the consensus is that they are games. I was wondering what the above quote is referring to when they say there are "riddled with glitches." I have had to reload my farm a time or two because "my game was out of sync with the server" but I always thought that may be because of my poor DSL speeds.

What kinds of glitches have there been in Farmville and Mafia Wars (the two games I play)?


Oh where to start.....This by no means will be encompasing, just whats gone on recently.

Farmville
* Multiple chicken coops. Some found an exploit that allowed more than the one coop. FV said Oops! that shouldn't have happened, bad user! then proceeded to let them keep the coops.
* Egg glitch, there was a glitch that allowed the coops to produce dozens of eggs a day by placing ready birds in the coop. That has only recently been stopped by killing the ability to get eggs almost at all.
* Super Pumpkin fiasco. Goes live, 'til 2/2' and then changes to 1/29 with no notification. The game after it (super pumpkins) went live, was down for approxmately 24 hours to most users making the revised timeframe impossible to complete mastery. It was bumped to 1/30 and then went down early on the 29th (preventing the purchase of super pumpkins) for about 6 more hours.
* Pretty much any new 'function' creates crashes after it launches, which is now twice weekly (updates are Tues/Thurs).
* Barn/Shed expansions. Initially you needed 10 clicks over 3 days, could be same people as long as 24 hours passed. It's since become 10 uniques in 3 days, no notice and often even if not having helped, you get help again in 24/48 hours notifications.

Mafia Wars
* Russia has had many many glitch isses, including not being able to call for help, chapters resetting after completion (both on a full mastery as well as tier 1 completion). I've been lucky, but there are still people experiencing this and there appears to be no fix.
*Cuba, to this day still doesn't display the -bribery % and after Russia went live, it didn't either. Only after players showed how bad Russia was going to be past episode 4 (literally a month farming money just to do the tier, Eps 5 and 6 would be even worse) did they not only take away bribery from Russia but completely devalued the money (to NY levels).
* Skill points stopped being awarded after job completions for about 3 weeks. They came back eventually, but there was no way to get the ones lost
* They have 'lost' servers 2 different times since december that nuked huge swaths of players stats. Normally this wouldn't be a huge issue, but their backups were at least 2 weeks old. For a game that allows for such fast character leveling, 2 weeks is far too long. Those that got hosed, stayed hosed, including those that are 'money players'.
* The whole NY properties thing. I think currently there are 4 different things, including 3 different forms of briberies. Those in NY briberies get bonus items which help with fights that others don't get, but since I'm still a properties person, I make more money (no point) in NY than they do.

[skaar]

I consider both to be Abominations Unto Nuggan, and should be abolished.