What can Farmville tell you about the way money works?
I admit it – I’m a sucker for Facebook games. In my defence – I do limit myself to playing one or two at any one time. I started out with Real Estate Tycoon, but it got boring as you got to point where you could only really buy and sell two properties.
I then discovered Mafia Wars when we were fighting with INZ over my parent’s sponsorship. It was highly “relaxing” doing mob style hits and jobs and amassing a large stash of weaponry at the time – I can tell you.
Both games involve making an awful lot of money – my bank balance in Mafia Wars stands at a healthy $277,000,000,000.
But it is with my latest game Farmville that I ended up with a bit of a shock and the realisation that art imitates life in these games sometimes.
In all these games – as well as your normal playing – you have achievements that you try and attain. In mafia wars its things like “Killing 1000 people in Cuba” but in Farmville it’s obviously a bit more sedate: harvesting 20 trees, befriending 10 other farmers – that sort of thing. And you get ribbons for gaining an achievement – four ribbons or levels for each one.
The thing is there are ribbons for both spending money and earning money.
To get the Blue Ribbon (the highest level) for earning money on your farm – you need to earn $1,000,000. But to get the same blue ribbon, or level of achievement for spending money in the market? You gave to spend $1,500,000!
The game makes you spend more than you earn to get the ribbon.
And while that may be the way the world wants you to do things, and give you a pat on the back for spending us out of a recession – its not a healthy way to do things. I’m sticking to spending less than we earn thank you very much!
Like what Avalon has to say?
Click Here to buy Avalon's Guide or Click Here to buy the E-Book
Related posts:
- What can Mafia Wars teach you about money?
- How Evony isn’t “free forever” – not by a long shot.
- What can Evony teach you about how money works?
Comments
4 Comments on What can Farmville tell you about the way money works?
-
Cheri on
Mon, 31st Aug 2009 8:37 pm
-
hubby on
Mon, 31st Aug 2009 9:52 pm
-
Avalon on
Tue, 1st Sep 2009 9:55 am
-
scottle on
Fri, 11th Sep 2009 11:44 am
I must say, I’ve found spending like a fruitcake on these games is a great way to release the ‘within your means, no-overspending’ tension I’ve built up from being good 
What farmville tells me about real life is that you always need more land & it takes too much time to plant and harvest crops! Farming stock I’m not!
to both those comments.
Obviously you don’t need to spend more than you earn. You just get one ribbon sooner than another!
Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!
Avalon’s Guide On Facebook
-
