Farmville 2 has hit the Facebook universe, and I know Zynga is really hoping it brings some gusto back to it’s brand, but I have to say that other than the characters being cute, and the 3-D is nice and all but a little slow, I quickly “unplugged” the app from my Facebook account after about 5 minutes of playing and probably won’t be back. Not a good sign.
I was a big Zynga guy. From Farmville to the Cafe game, from Cityville to Empires and Allies, and from Cityville to Castleville, I’ve wasted countless hours collecting crops and trying to expand my “Ville” or fight the “enemy,” only to get frustrated by the increasing need to “add neighbors,” and not wanting to add people I really didn’t know to my friend’s list. Being selective left an instant stall in how big I could grow things, and eventually led to many thoughts of “Why am I wasting my time with this?” Luckily I never got into the “buying coins” thing, although I do admit I did buy a Zynga gift card as a gift for someone, but that was about it.
I do have to say that as my Facebook world has shifted from my laptop to my iPhone that the Facebook game thing has faded quite a bit for me, but that doesn’t mean I’m not still a Zynga user as I can be a Words With Friends kind of guy, and still like it when the Scramble game gives me some fanfare when I get lucky and defeat my wife, but still wonder at their decision to buy Draw Something as that game quickly got old with its insistence on “buying” just about everything. I did try the Farmville thing on my iPhone with their app, and I think I would have gotten sucked in had I found it early on in my Zynga love, but by the time it hit I had come to my senses and figured my life would be better lived if I didn’t waste me time building a virtual farm that would only leave me sad that I didn’t have any friends.
In any case, with Farmville 2 now out, my daily plight reflects back to the original: Did you ever play Farmville?
That’s it for this plight! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!
