There are millions of students who should be studying, they should be doing chores around the house, they should be running errands for mom and dad but, they can’t. They have to milk cows, plant beets and harvest their crops.
The culprit… Farmville.
Farmville is an online game created by Zynga and hosted by Facebook. The game allows members to manage a virtual farm by planting, growing, and harvesting virtual crops, trees, and livestock.
Though the game has been out no longer than six months, Farmville has become the most popular game application on Facebook, having a total of 70,476,996 members as of December 7, 2008.
Farmville has become worldwide, and many Penn Manor students have found themselves swept in by its power.
“It’s alright, I didn’t like it at first but it’s addicting,” said Justin Herr a junior at Penn Manor, “I still don’t like it that much but I have nothing better to do.”
Started only months ago, in June of this year, by November 9th it had claimed more than 63 million members.
Although the game is meant for just fun, once you begin a farm, the game requires certain things of you. Crops must be harvested at certain times or they are worth nothing.
“It depends on my crops; but normally I play every two days,” stated Herr, “the crops dictate my life.”
Kirsten Bechtold agreed, “I play every other day, no… make that everyday.”
There are times you actually have to play the game, if not, you might lose everything. For instance, once strawberries are planted, it takes four hours until they can be harvested.
That’s four hours of real time. That’s four hours when lots of other things could be getting done, like chores, homework, those kind of things.
“If my crops died I would get really pissed off,” stated Herr, “I tried to earn that money and it would just be going down the toilet.”
In Farmville you have a plot of ground where you grow your crops and raise your animals; however there are farm plots around you where you can have neighbors.
“All my friends are my neighbors,” said Bechtold, “my neighbor is my neighbor on Farmville.”
One of Herr’s neighbors is Jeremiah Mazzur.
Mazzur commented that the music on Farmville is amazing, and his favorite part is the cows.
“The strawberry cows to be exact,” added Mazzur.
Who said Penn Manor isn’t a farm school anymore?
“It’s addicting,” said Bechtold, “once you start; you can’t stop.”
By Lyta Ringo
Of all the online games to pick from, this is the one that students pick?
YAY FARMVILLE IS FUN
I wish I could have one of those pink cows in real life like the one shown in the picture so that I could have a fresh supply of strawberry milk.
so kids today dont work, but they farm virtually? im lost….
‘The crops dictate my life’? See, this is why facebook scares me. XD