Farmville is not a Game

Last week, I was on the bus and listening to a recent episode of Chatterbox Video Game Radio. The hosts began talking about what they dislike about Cityville, Farmville, and similar games. Ara firmly argued that no, these aren’t games, while Alon played devil’s advocate. If you’re interested, give it a listen. The relevant bit starts around the 16:30 mark.

Chatterbox #364 – Breaking the Game

These topics are always rabbit holes. Get post-modern enough and you can turn the “game” term into something meaningless. Even that is avoided, it’s hard to explain the why of this question to casual gamers, particularly those who exclusively play Facebook games. I’ll give it a go, though.

The reason that Farmville and the like aren’t actually video-games is that choices are composed entirely of tactics, but devoid of strategy.

What’s the difference?

Tactics are repeatable tasks. If you’re a football fan, think of blocking, passing, or tackling. In military lingo, tactics would consist of the composition of fighting units, their formation, and the execution of a specific maneuver. In Farmville, the tactics are buying, selling, harvesting, building, and the like.

Strategy is the integration of tactics toward the larger aim of winning the game. It’s when you assemble those tactical Lego-blocks into a structure born of insight and creativity.

Click Anywhere

In order to be playing a game, you must be able to lose. In Farmville, not only can you not lose, but you are never penalized for employing incorrect tactics. This is because there are no incorrect tactics, only less efficient ones. If you can’t lose, efficiency isn’t relevant; every choice ultimately hollow.

Yes, efficient choices maximize the speed of level progression and item acquisition, but there is nothing strategically superior about a faster-growing farm. Wasted crops and squandered farmbucks may result in slower acquisitions and level progression, but the only point of growing your farm faster is to grow your farm faster. I realize that the average Farmville player is competing with their friends’ farms, but that’s for bragging rights. In a game-mechanics sense, this angle is irrelevant.

Sandboxes

Farmville is a sandbox. It’s mistaken for a game because of what it shares in common with them: evolving graphics, dialog boxes, level progression, virtual currency, mouse clicks, and so on. But, the reason everyone’s so hooked on Farmville has less to do with game design and more to do with exploiting the dopamine receptors of your brain. If that’s what qualifies, then add drug addiction and alcoholism to the list.

It’s okay to like Farmville. It’s not my bag, but I’ve played in plenty of virtual sandboxes. I’ve logged dozens of hours playing Spore and even built stuff in Second Life. Like Farmville, they were notable for their lack of game. But, they can still be fun. They’re all about building, sharing, socializing, and pulling on a lever to get another pellet. I suppose, to some, the distinction seems academic, but it’s worth examining if only because there are a shit-ton of Farmville players that don’t quite know why they’re playing.

Further Reading

The Difference Between Strategy and Tactics
5 Creepy Ways Video Games Are Trying to Get You Addicted
Cow Clicker: The Making of Obsession