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My Addiction to FarmVille

Sep 6th, 2009 by Shaun Carter

So I have to admit I have an addiction… to the Facebook game FarmVille. Now, of course, I am always curious about the business and money side of things and the money generated by the creators of Facebook applications is no exception. The most popular apps bring in millions of page impressions and create a potential for tremendous revenue for the creators.

FarmVille is interesting for the fact that I don’t recall seeing any display advertising and upon double checking, sure enough there is none. The game appears to derive revenue solely from selling Farm Coins and Cash used for upgrading your virtual farm. While I have never paid money to add things to a Facebook app, I’m sure many people have and in turn create a nice revenue stream for the creator, Zynga.

Zynga was recently featured in The Wall Street Journal because of FarmVille’s success. The article mentions that after only two months, FarmVille enjoys having 11 Million active users and that money is earned through online advertising and in-game purchases. I’m still confused as to where the in-game advertising is though.

Adam Nash published a blog post about the economics of FarmVille which is a very interesting analysis of the inside mechanics of the game and will surely help out not only hardcore players, but newbies as well. Another more detailed economic analysis of FarmVille’s Trees was calculated by Pablo Paniagua.

The picture at the top of this post is my farm, that I have since modified and will be changing again after saving up to upgrade the size. The game is entirely pointless, however it is a great relaxation tool and a way to kill time.

Technorati Tags: zynga, farmville, wall street journal, virtual farm, facebook

Posted in Fun | 12 Comments

12 Responses to “My Addiction to FarmVille”

on 08 Sep 2009 at 1:45 am1Pablo Paniagua (1 comments.)

Farmville addiction is a healthy one, don’t worry

Thanks for the link and congrats for the post.
on 12 Sep 2009 at 3:49 am2the florist (1 comments.)

This Farmville addiction is spreading like a epidemic.
on 17 Sep 2009 at 7:03 pm3Shaun Carter (23 comments.)

I agree Pablo. My Farmville time is some of the most relaxing of the day!
on 27 Oct 2009 at 8:32 am4david (1 comments.)

Hi, I have also tried that game. It is really an interesting game to pass time. Every friend of mine loves the game a lot. But nowadays i hear topics like internet addiction. When our interest is completely focused only on a particular thing, we get addicted to them. So it is possible to avoid such kind of addiction easily. Don’t worry.
Thanks for sharing.
on 30 Oct 2009 at 2:12 am5ryan vines (1 comments.)

Recently I came to know that the players of FarmVille, the most popular game on Facebook, have so far contributed $487,500 towards the welfare of children in Haiti, reports FarmVille’s developer Zynga. Anyways playing games also nourishes your brain power so don’t worry keep on playing and if you get addicted to it you should know that you are doing some help to the poor children. Thanks for sharing…
on 21 Nov 2009 at 2:51 pm6farmvillehelp (1 comments.)

Hey Ryan,

I saw the Farmville help for Haiti article as well. I was pretty stoked, as I sit on the Board of Directors for a non-profit raising money for school children in Haiti (rural are called Jacmel). Would love to find out how to get a bit of Zynga love coming toward the school.
on 01 Dec 2009 at 7:26 pm7Kevin m (1 comments.)

hey cool site!
I too have fallen victim to this very addictive game. I also got a bunch of my friends addicted to it as well. hehe… Lately I’ve been trying to get ahead of them so got a Farmville leveling guideif anyone here is interested in getting a jump up on the competition check it out.
on 08 Dec 2009 at 5:25 pm8Elisheba (1 comments.)

Hi! I love that game too.
on 14 Jan 2010 at 4:31 am9Darren (1 comments.)

Love this game, as you said one of the best things about it is the fact that there’s no advertising. I’ve never bought any FV cash or coins but I know two very competitive people who keep buying it to get one up and each other with their farms. It’s really quite amusing to listening to them boasting about what they’ve just put on their farm.

It’s these conversations between the two of them that got me to try the game and once I did I was hooked. I’m getting quite good at it now but I know a few people who are struggling so I set up a small Farmville Tips blog. If you need any help check it out.
on 19 Jan 2010 at 8:12 pm10Steve21 (1 comments.)

Sweet website, I love Everclear, gotta see’em live sometime. I found this site. It ranks the top farmville guides out there. It also has some good info for farmville player on it. If you wanna check it out its right here Sure helped me out a ton, and I feel for people who are new and struggling in this game. Keep up the cool site. I’ll check back.
on 19 Jan 2010 at 11:44 pm11Philip

The only Zynga game I have only played (and still am) is Mafia Wars. I’m addicted to that game and even created Mafia Wars Strategy blog. However, I’m now getting a little bored with it now and I’ve had a lot of Farmville requests. So just googling around and reading up on it. I’m mainly interested in any good strategic, thinking game. Zynga has made changes to Mafia Wars (for example, can no longer attack other people’s properties) that it is now just a mindless clicking game. Yet I’m still playing because, like you said, it’s relaxing and a cool way to kill time

By the way, thanks for the link to the blog post about the economics of FarmVille. It certainly has got my attention!
on 02 Feb 2010 at 4:02 am12Nigel (1 comments.)

When I first started playing farmville I was really addicted to the game now I am level 34 and have many master crop trophies. I love it man.

farmville tips facebook