Farmville

One of my New Year's resolution is to not play Farmville anymore. I've been addicted to the game since I first started playing. I've spend an hour a day at least since then.

Farmville is a game on Facebook on which the players own a farm, they plow land, plant crops and harvest them -- thus earning virtual money that they spend again on their farm. The game has been extremely successful with 11 million daily active users in less than 6 months.

What has led to this extreme success and addictive nature of the game?

Social collaboration - you not only harvest your farm but also help out others by fertilizing their farm. This earns you more points. Also, you can give gifts to your friends almost every day

Competition - I was competing against myself and my husband to get ahead in terms of level. Is that what drives us?

Materialistic needs - The more profit you make the more things you can buy - a bigger farm, more animals, trees etc. Are our materialistic needs so powerful in the virtual world as well?

Entrepreneurship - is it the entrepreneurial nature of the game? After all players need to be smart about what they plant in terms of profit, upfront investment, time taken etc. For those of us stuck in salaried jobs it's quite exciting to own a P&L.

Farming - is it actually the action of farming that is so enticing.

To farmville's benefit, playing it has made me a lot more sensitive to farming. I've developed a whole new level of awareness of farms, plants, land, trees, animals etc. It's an amazing game, try it!