So.... FarmVille. You either love it or you don't. Well... maybe not. I have differing opinions, depending on the day. But, bottom line is - I play FarmVille. Although "play" might not be the right word. Farming is WORK, people! So many decisions, so much to be done, so many animals, a virtual (literally) forest of trees... sigh. It all leads to a few (ha!) observations/questions/comments on the whole little world of Farmville:1. Scale... I know it's a virtual world, but it's a little freaky when the horses are as big as the tractors, the tractors are too big for the barns, the snowmen are as tall as the eaves of my log cabin, and the turkeys are as big as the cows. Not a big deal, to be sure, but worth mentioning. Let's just say if I were a chicken, I would definitely be afraid of the rabbits...
2. Let's go back to the cows. I have regular brown and white milk cows. I have brown cows (that give chocolte milk - VERY cool). I have pink cows that give strawberry milk. I also have GREEN cows from space that give milktonium. Who buys that stuff? Maybe the aliens that made my crop circles? I even have little green calves! They ARE kinda cute in their martian-ness. The calves bring up another question - what are they FOR? All you can do is brush them. Who brushes a cow baby? Why? I'm glad I get PAID for it, but still... ??? And apparently these are eternal calves - they never grow up... it's like a Neverland for them. I want to know why I can't sell them for veal. Oh come on, now - you know it's what would REALLY happen. I'm being overrun by these little varmits - why not let them be useful? I feel the same way about all the lambs... ever heard of LAMB chops?
3. Still on the subject of bovines... what about those bulls? They can be very entertaining. You can have one bull in each barn (with 19 cows - lucky guy). I have 5 barns with a bull in each. I have several other bulls that have no barn to live in. They know where they WANT to be, though - as soon as I moved them to the pen in front of the barns - they all went and stood looking in at the cows. Kinda feel sorry for them. The scary thing is - I have to brush THEM, too. I don't know about you, but a brushing a bull is not high on my list of fun things to do... or safe.
4. Then we have the reindeer. I have a whole herd of them...half of which are still tangled in Christmas lights. What do you DO with reindeer after Christmas? Since I'm not allowed to send them off to make sausage or jerkey - they just stand there waiting to be...can you guess? Yes..waiting to be brushed.
5. Chickens. Chickens, chickens, chickens. I have approximately 512,917 chickens... and ONE chicken coop that holds 20. WHY can't we have more than one coop? We can have as many cow barns as we want... why not chicken coops? I also want to know why we don't have buildings for all the other animals... doesn't seem too much to ask. I've got goats (good gosh do I have goats), sheep, reindeer, horses, baby elephants (who produce circus peanuts??), rabbits, penguins, ducks and all sorts of critters with nowhere to live. I don't know about YOUR farm, but it's snowy on my farm... is it too much to ask to have horse stables, rabbit hutches, pig sty's, goat & sheep barns...?? I'm not really sure WHAT penguins would need... maybe an igloo?
6. And pigs. Pigs that harvest truffles. I always thought that was only in England, but obviously I didn't know the whole story. Why not ham, bacon & pork chops, hmmm? No piglets yet - I guess because they can't be brushed. The horses "product" is a little strange, too - you collect horse hair. Tell me - what do we use horse hair for nowadays? I'd like to know.... really.
7. Because I don't have enough to do on my farm, I have cats. About a billion & three at this point... all needing to be brushed on a regular basis. Don't get me wrong - I LOVE cats. But FV has given me TWO "Cat Lady" awards in the last week or two. Is that supposed to be a compliment?
8. Moving on past the critters... there are TREES. Loads and loads of trees! It's really an amazing environment where banana, date, apricot, passion fruit, fir, walnut, avocado, cherry, all manner of citrus, olive & sugar maples can all live together...in the snow. I did have to break down and sell about 3/4's of my trees, though. There wasn't enough room for me and the chickens to walk around. I was afraid I was going to get permanently lost.
9. I really have an issue with the storage facilities. I have 3 large storage barns and five sheds I am only allowed to keep 28 items total in these buildings. Tell me - when was the last time YOU saw a storage shed with only 4 things inside? I think, depending on your packing ability, the storage capacity should only be limited by your creativity. I'm pretty sure one whole shed is taken up by the hot air balloon I just can't bear to get rid of...and then there is the alien plant monster I will use again later... but the rest of the stuff is pretty small.
10. At one point, I had all my ducks in a row (ha ha - pun intended) - but they will NOT stay that way. Shouldn't be surprised - they are migratory creatures after all... just saying.
So - I know there's someone out there saying "If these things bother you - just quit playing." But if you know me AT ALL, you know that isn't possible. Me and my OCD personality could never let all those poor critters (virtual or not) perish from neglect... nor let my crops go unharvested (I've almost got the gold medal for raising squash! I'll even get a sign to post!) or all the baby critters...and frustrated bulls... go unbrushed and unkempt. Who would pick all the fruit? Who would gather the turkey, swan & goose feathers? Who would make sure the cats don't harrass the turtles? How could I ever SLEEP AGAIN? Sigh... my biggest problem now is that I have discovered Zoo World. More beasties to care for...train...breed...feed. As my alter ego (The Wicked Witch of the West) would say... what a world, what a world!!!! :)
