Topic: FarmVille - The Future of Social Gaming by Thao s3242198

2. Media Culture 2 on 21 April 2010
By Thao Uyen Truong – s3242198

3. 1. Overview
2. The popularity of Farmville
3. The Interaction between Farmville , Facebook
and Community
4. Why Farmville is the future social gaming?
5. Conclusion
6. References

4.  Farmville is a real-time farm simulation game
application on social networks such as Facebook and
My Space.
 Farmville released in June 2009 on Facebook and is
developed by Zynga– an online game company
 Gameplay: players grow their own virtual farms by:
 designing and building their farms
 planting and harvesting virtual seeds and fruit trees
 purchasing buildings and farming accessories
 purchasing and raising livestock
 Farmville is a clone of Farm Town but more successful
than Farm Town

5.  According to an online article by The Mashable (a social
media guide), Farmville has become the most popular game
application on Facebook with 26.5 millions daily active
players and 69.2 millions monthly active users by the end of
2009  Bigger than social network Twitter (18 millions)

6.  FarmVille on Facebook won Social Networking Game of the Year
Award 2009 : 81 millions monthly active players
 FarmVille has achieved over 82.4 million active users and over 23.8
million fans in April 2010 (according to Appdata web).
 Total FarmVille players are over 20% of the users of Facebook and
over 1% of the population of the world in April 2010. ( Wikipedia)

7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8MpkVY9L-Q

8. Social Network
Facebook
Social
Social Game
Network
Farmville
Community
Real Life Analogy: Facebook is a shopping centre, Farmville is
an entertainment shop and Community as customers .

9.  Farmville leverages the social networking aspects of Facebook
 Zynga pays Facebook millions of dollars every year for
marketing Farmville on their site
 Farmville makes money from marketing for other companies
and selling virtual farming accessories/goods to players
 Community get virtual money from growing and harvesting
farms, or from real currency (Credit card/ PayPal) to buy
virtual goods, to build bigger farms, and to advance their
game level.
Example: "For me it's just relaxing and fun. I don't have to think hard about it, and I
can do it while watching TV," Lauren Kohn, 37, a mother of three in San Jose said . To
buy virtual goods she spent over $100 since first-time she played four months ago.
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2009/10/26/farmville-gamemaker-zynga-sees-dollar-signs/
 Farmville developers use the profit to design more game
levels, new goods and new ideas to retain players interest.
 To attract players, Farmville creates three way of measuring
progress: experiences points, achievements and Co-op
farming.

11.  Social motivation and behavior; Facebook is a bridge for
social media, social networks and business.
 Farmville is a free online application available on social
networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace.
 Farmville ranks among the top five games played daily on
Facebook.
 Players interact with each other through gameplay;
 helping each other with their farming
 offering each other gifts (e.g. Experience Points, Seeds,
Livestock…etc.)
 sharing their experiences and fun in Farmville (e.g. IM, Blog,
Personal Gameplay Updates on Facebook)

12.  Farmville has become one of the most popular online social
games
 Farmville is easy, fun, and attracts players of different age
 Farmville is a future social game
 Disadvantages:
 Time consuming
 Can take you away from your reality life
 Can cost real money
Example: two weeks ago , a 12 years old UK boy spent £ 905 in Farmville
including: about £288 of his own savings, and £625 was billed to his
horrified mother’s credit card.

13. 1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8MpkVY9L-Q
2. http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2009/10/26/farmville-gamemaker-zynga-sees-
dollar-signs/
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FarmVille
4. http://www.customer-experience-labs.com/2010/02/24/understanding-
facebook-the-farmville-phenomenon-and-the-future-of-social-gaming/
5. http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/06/zynga-farmville/
6. http://www.techiteasy.org/2010/02/05/farmville-the-rpg/
7. http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2009/07/15/with-farmville-zynga-joins-
the-facebook-farming-fray/
8. http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/07/15/farmville-is-the-fastest-growing-
app-on-facebook-at-over-3-million-new-users-this-week/
9. http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kate-rockwood/bizzy-body/why-are-we-
obsessed-online-farming?partner=rss
10. http://mashable.com/2010/03/30/farmville-addiction/
11. http://www.techiteasy.org/2010/01/12/thoughts-on-farmville-an-addictive-
but-flawed-facebook-game-2/
12. http://www.appdata.com/facebook/apps/index/id/102452128776