Lessons from Farmville

Farmville fever is still on. At least for me. At least for my baby brother Owa. He even gave me his email address and password so that I could tend his farm. I’m flattered.

So what have I learned from the tedious task of taking care of my farm?

1. You could not please everybody. Your farm may look perfect to you but to others, it may still look like crap. Maybe they’re envious of my farm. haha. It’s just good that I don’t have ‘Barn Buddy’ because for sure, these green-eyed monsters would put pests to pester me. (Is this figure of speech called alliteration, anyone?) Well, maybe we should bear in mind that as long as something makes us happy,it
is definitely right. Nobody could tell us that we did a good job but ourselves.

2. Friends are important. They give us free gifts in Farmville. I had 29 unused gifts last week because I could not put them anywhere yet. But now that my farm is big enough, I will surely reap the benefits. Friends support you in every possible way that they can. It’s the quality of your friends that counts, not the quantity.

3. Pay it forward. As cliche as it may sound, it is still better to give than to receive (Merry Christmas!). Give free gifts to your friends once in a while. Some of them even have special requests. Be it animals or a white fence like Tsi, just give in to them, especially when they start showing you those puss-in-boots-pleading-eyes.

4. The value of work. You have to work hard and save your coins or money to buy the things you would like to have in your farm. Currently, I’m saving for ‘greenhouse.’ It costs 100,000 coins and I have to wait until I reach Level 30. Patience is indeed a virtue. And Farmville has been testing my patience time and again.

5. Motivation. So what motivates you to increase your level in Farmville? Is it the bragging rights that you are the top farmer amongst your friends? Is it your collection of trees and/or animals? Is it your desire to help your neighbors? Is it the most expensive building you could possibly get? Whatever it is, if you have motivation to do something, then nothing is impossible.

6. Brag all you want. You could be the wealthiest farmer but at the end of the day, you’re still ALONE in your farm. You may have your neighbors but NOBODY’s living with you in your farm. Why didn’t Farmville include ‘people’ for you to spend your coins with? Maybe it teaches us another important thing, money could not buy us companionship.

(There’s gotta be more to life than chasing down every temporary high to satisfy me…)

So what did Farmville teach you?

Off-topic:

Thank you to my blogger friends who gave me these wonderful shirts during the GEB last 04-Sep-09. Thank you to our sponsor, Kuya Bernard and Tivoli Garden Residences. And most especially, thank you to all the bloggers I met. The event was a blast.