Back on the Farm

I started playing Farmville 2 again. Mock all you want to. I understand the mocking. However, right now, Farmville 2 is about the limit of the depth I can handle in terms of goals and accomplishments. It's sad, yes, but so is getting your uterus pulled out your hoohoo. I'm coping as I can.  Anyway, the thing about Farmville 2 is that there have been some changes to the game that make it less annoying to play (at least for the moment). I've also made some changes about my approach to playing it that also make it more enjoyable.

The game now has a family option. You can have a spouse and a child. There are some other slots, implying you may get other children later on (or in-laws or something).  This is actually the feature that lured me back to the game. I'm kind of a sucker for family games, which is in complete opposition to how I live my life. I guess it's because I separate my avatar's wants and needs from my own. Farmville-Me is happy to have a husband and a kid.  She displays both of them a lot of affection. It wouldn't really be the same for me in real life. Then again, none of this would, because I would never live on a farm or be as ambitious as that little avatar.

There is also a weekly market goal, that, while difficult, is certainly achievable. I usually finish it in a couple of days. The market gains you extra points that allow you to get really great things for the farm, like a water tower that holds a lot more water than your wells do. It also takes up less room. I didn't know about this feature when I started playing the game again, but I really love it. It's one of the few times when I've seen a game improve itself in a way that was intelligent and actually useful for the player. Let's face it; most rewards from FB games are useless. The fact that Farmville 2 has altered that is impressive.

One of the major differences in my level of enjoyment of the game is that I've changed my approach to how I handle quests. When I played before, I would do EVERY QUEST that showed up. This gets overwhelming because Farmville will do a lot of quests all at once. I get that they're trying to add some excitement to the game (because just feeding goats gets boring), but often this gets to be WAY too much, especially when you have to keep asking friends for stuff and there is a cap on how much you can get per day.

A FB game should never feel like it's your job. It should never feel like it's an obligation. When it starts to, that's when I get sick of the game and quit. I think that this game realized people were quitting for these reasons and have tried to find a way around that. So far, it's working. They could get back to messing up, but so far, they're not. And I like that.

For the moment, Farmville 2 (and some other FB games) are my coping devices. They help me to just zone out and get through my days. And, as I said, it gives me some meaningless goals. I needed those as well. Is this the road to recovery? Maybe in a small way. I hope it's just in a small way. No one wants to say that Farmville saved their brain.