Galad said:
I'm not new to the forum but I also have a question as, let's call it sensitive, as the OP's. I dislike farmville but I've only second hand impressions from it. Please note I'm not intending to troll, I genuinely don't know and would like to correct my second hand impressions. My question is, is there any gaming skill involved in farmville, or it's just a way to sink time and (if that's your kind of thing) have fun? In other words, is it possible that someone's new farm gets bigger than someone else's old farm without the use of RL money, that's what I would consider gaming skill in the case of this game?
Well it really just depends on how you look at it. I don't know so much about skill involved. I play any FPS on the hardest difficulty first off, and beat them quickly. I'm not bragging. I just use the tools in the game and beat it. It just takes thought. So, does farmville require thought? Yes. You can just plant stuff and have a who gives a shit attitude about it. But if you do that your friends are going to be higher level than you, have a more impressive collection of items and most likely have more or better what you have. It's an economy game really. You can be brainless and just plant "X" because you like "X" or you can look at the numbers, find the best return for your time involvement. It really can become a juggling act too, especially if you're trying for the highest level (I think 70 at this point). Because you can plant whatever, but you've got to be around to harvest it that's what matters.
That's why I say it can be casual and or not so casual. You can be at a point where you plan your day around your crops or you can just once every 3-4 days plant again. You can be as hardcore as you want. Handle your farm strictly for XP, strictly for gold, or strictly for design and have really no goal. That's what you do in alot of games. Dex build? same thing.
Also I've never spent a dime on Farmville and never plan to, but I've got the second largest farm in the game. Not enough friends for the largest.