INTRODUCTION –

Virtual world has blocked our mental images, restricting to explore our true selves by gluing onto an electronic device, through which a person feels he can fulfill his desires. It has indeed become a medium through which a person satiates his desires vicariously.

Using the fictitious tools, you have ambushed some terrorists with high-tech ammunitions, revved some engines to get a podium finish, and absconded from some cops for grand thefts. And now you have something really inseparable, something ancient but yet existent, for most part of the world a primary source of survival-farming.

Recently farming has become a preferred arena for gaming online, with the arrival of ‘Farmville’ game started by Zynga, especially on Facebook. Here is an opportunity for people who haven’t ploughed, sowed seeds, or harvested a crop ever in their existence on this earth to experience the real mechanism of farming.

RULES -
Farmville is a world which centers around the farmers ability to grow, nurture and harvest a crop. It does not require logical reasoning or strategizing, but if the farmer has to survive and prosper in the online farm world, he has to earn the maximum amount in a minimum span of time.

At the first stage of the game, the farmer is allotted a small plot of land, some money and an even smaller six square section that has been plowed and planted. The purpose is to expand his/her farm by growing crops and selling them to buy more crops. The faster the player can expand his farm, the more money he can earn and thus be able to afford a lot of other things. Now the money could be earned or the farm could be expanded in two ways – Farmville coins or Farmville cash. Coins are the most common form of money and they can be obtained by harvesting crops, whereas, green cash is quite seldom and is rewarded only over gradual accomplishments and after each level that is passed. The player should also have minimum number of neighbours to expand his farm.

The land that is purchased cannot be a direct purchase of what the farmer demands. Each incremental piece of land should be obtained, before the farmer shifts to buy the next size. For instance, a person ought to purchase a 14×14 space before moving onto 16×16 space.

STRATEGIES –TIPS -
There are some general tips or strategies that could be applied to be a wealthy farmer. The strategy is similar to any kind of business oriented organization. A profit-minded farmer will adopt one strategy i.e. grow, harvest and expand and grow, harvest and expand. Subsequently, this yields soaring profit and leads to higher levels quickly in the early stages of the game. One another simple way of advancing in the game is by adding more and more friends to the neighbourhood.

Every beginner might get carried away with purchasing objects for decorative purposes, but a savvy farmer will wait to buy these things until he/she has the capacity to plow and seed an entire field. Another strategy seems similar to that of investing in a share which has greater ROI (Return on Investment). The farmer should select the crop which results in considerable profits. One should consider the cost of the seeds versus the money he will earn from harvesting the crops.

Farmers should also check the growth time of the crop and it should be harvested soon before it is withered. This involves real time and not game time which means that if a crop is a two hour crop, it will take two hours to grow and will wither if not harvested by the farmer. So the farmer has to plant a crop keeping in mind his real-life schedule, which sounds quite fascinating.

The real life experience of farming has made the game so popular among the urbanites. People are transported into the zone of real farming by harvesting vegetables, milking cows and shearing sheep. It might also serve as a medium that deletes all misconceptions about our farmers or our ignorance, to their commitment of feeding the nation adequately. So this virtual experience of online farming has struck a chord with the masses, although the real one has declined.

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