All good things...

So this is going to be a FarmVille related entry and a bit of a rant at that, but also the last entry ever! I started playing way back in August 2009 and then stopped in December 2009, but started up again in February 2010 when they released the "Unwither Ring". It used to be a fun game, but for a while now it's just become more and more of a chore and if it's not fun, why play it? So because of all the work I'd put in I set myself a new goal before I could stop and today I reached it!

300!

Yeh I know, I need to get out more, although when you've got over 1500 "Belted Cows (which generate 3,000 coins per day EACH) getting money and levelling up isn't really much of a challenge. Over the last few months Zynga (who make the game), have just made it rediculous. First they introduced crop masteries, then tree masteries, then cooking masteries, then crafting masteries and finally animal masteries. But they never backdated any of them and whilst originally having the signs was something you felt impressed by, but over 300 signs later, it's just taking up loads of space on your farm and noone, even you, cares about them anymore.

All 243 regular crops, 4 of the super crops and 70 tree masteries

1 crafting mastery, 16 cooking masteries and 26 animal masteries

Then there was the constant requirement to spend real money. Originally it was just a few items here and there which were reasonably priced (as resasonably priced sa virtual items go!) and you didn't feel bad if you bought a few of them to make your farm look nicer. That's all changed now, they know that people were collecting every horse, every gnome or even every tree so they inflated the prices and started bringing out a new one of each of those... every 2-3 days! I did start collecting trees AND horses for a bit, but it just wasn't possible to keep doing that so had to stop collecting both.

My horses and horse-type animals

They've also started bringing out new quests every two weeks (and you have two weeks to do them in) and whilst you don't have to do them, you feel like you should at least try. If you don't have friends who actively play though, it's impossible to finish some of the quests... unless you spend real money to bypass it!

The lowest point to me is the constant price testing. For example with some special item they "release" it for cash, but everyone sees a different price. However if you go to buy it then you're told it's not yet available and it'll be coming soon. Then of course they analyse the prices of the buy clicks and release it at the highest possible price (that will still get people buying it!)

If you go on the Zynga forums there's nothing but upset people fed up with the constant popups, the out of sync errors, bugs that have been there for months and the constant attempt to make you spend real money and basically taking the fun away from the game. Zynga don't even bother to reply to any of them and you're probably asking "Why are they still playing then?" Because it was fun, we've spent a lot of time on it and we've still got goals we wanted to achieve. Although the forums are full of nothing but complaints, I'm sure there are still some people who are still enjoying the game and I envy them.

Here's some final pictures of my farms:

My original farm, anyone want a belted cow? :)

My English Countryside farm, mostly just for crops

I know my original farm has the England flags etc, but that's because that was BEFORE we could have an English Countryside farm :)

Okay so if you actually bothered reading this far, good for you! I stopped playing Restautant City again a few days ago too (because it's just boring and there aren't any levels higher than 90) and I've nearly finished Bejeweled Blitz (I'm 226/250 on the 450K star and that's the only one left) and after I finish that... no more Facebook games/obligations - Hurrah! :D