My wife recently got Facebook and saw all of her friends sending her invites to Mafia Wars and Farmville and Blood Wars and a ton of other games. She signed up and asked me to show her what it was. I happily explained everything and she said, “So you just hit this button over and over.” “Yeah, basically. Sometimes you hit that button too.” After my 7 year old and her made fun of me and I realized that I didn’t understand why I liked these games. I play them and I guess I enjoy it, but I don’t know why. There’s no skill. No story. There is a sense of accomplishment to completing some things and I guess that is enough because I still log in and hit that button. I’ve become George Jetson.
Farmville is my other secret shame. It’s on my iPhone and religiously I plant and hoe and plant and hoe and plant and hoe. So while I have to tell you that Farmville is one of my favorite iPhone games. I can’t tell you why. It’s free until you get suckered into buying all the additional content. I already purchased a medium sized farm for $1. And the ‘drag to plow’ for $1. And the ‘drag to seed’ for $1. And the ‘drag to plant’ for $1. And right now I am trying my best not to buy the large farm for another $1. This ‘free’ iPhone game is going to be my most expensive iPhone purchase at the end. And I love it, I just don’t know why.
