Tuesday, January 5, 2010

The Simple Life

Okay. So I am in the "addicted to Farmville" club. Level 37, I have no further milestones to achieve, yet my harvests are synced with my watch in almost scientific precision.

It all started when I saw my news feed - "Aparna has left the city living to become a farmer". Yippiee!! I was so happy. I lost myself in my crops, my trees, and overnight, I didn't just become a farmer, but also an animal lover, a tree hugger, a Sultan of Soil, a Barnyard Behemoth, oh, and an extremely gifted landscape artiste.

But think about it fairly. Whats so bad about an RPG that makes you utilize amazing abilities that you don't even have in real? If non-existent talents can help you attain a signboard on your property that says "Preminum Grapes grown here" , what's so bad? How many times in real life can you expand your land by 80 square feet at a rate of almost once a month? How many people in real life, with just an internet connection and nothing else, own villas, greenhouses, cottages, lodges, and estates on one large piece of land? Heck, how many of us have even dreamt of a piece of land large enough to house all of the above together?

Come to think of it, I would encourage young kids to watch their crops grow, gift flower bouquets to friends, pet their pigs and their baby turkeys, rather than letting them get a whiff of RPG's like "Rapelay" (yes, it unfortunately exists).

Maybe the popularity of Farmville was not its game method, but what it brings out of ourselves - simple, yet lavish living and hordes of neighbors bearing you gifts on a 12-hour basis. Maybe for most of us, it's an escape into an alternate reality we know we can never have, bot secretly crave.

I'd better go harvest those blueberries.....

1 comment:

Adarsh Bhat said...

Share some love with the fish at Fishville.