Set Your Rival on Ice and Win His Money at NHL 10

If you're not familiarized with FarmVille, it's not mainly because you've just fallen off the turnip truck. The most popular application on the social-networking web site Facebook, its popularity has astonished even its developers at San Francisco's Zynga.

The game lets participants to build an idyllic farm by growing fruits and vegetables, purchasing livestock and tools, and networking with some other farmers - all without ever having to pick up a hoe or muck out a pen.

When it released June 19, FarmVille picked up 25,000 users in its very first day, according to Mark Skaggs, head of the game's creation team. Its cute, G-rated content now draws 21 million users daily and 60 million monthly worldwide.


Skaggs believes the attraction is universal: "It's a idea that everybody knows worldwide. And it's easy to play," he says, citing the Zen-like experience of planting plots. Still, the needs of a virtual farm shouldn't be taken lightly. Harvest times are accelerated for cyberspace: Strawberries are ready to pick in four hrs, a pumpkin in eight. Forget to harvest, the crop withers and you're out of luck. If all goes well, you can cash in your crops for FarmVille money and buy supplies and other goodies.

Zynga plans to keep the game unique by adding "delights" (look for a spontaneous little black cloud that will shower farms with water, giving plants a boost).

As for his own plantation, Skaggs just had a successful harvest of pumpkins and watermelons, but his strawberries withered. Perhaps it's time for another "delight" - crop subsidies.

The contributor is a game correspondent and a well-known Xbox 360 games tournaments player. Taking part in dozens sports Xbox Live games tournaments, he writes hints about the hidden xbox 360 console game hints which he discovered on his own and desires to show to other console gaming amateurs.