Social Game Reviews

Every single one of you has seen the alerts at least a dozen times.  The alerts that [insert friend here] has mastered a vegetable, or earned a ribbon for whatever, or found some awkward-ass animal.  The thing is, there are two Facebook games that could be annoying the uninitiated while compelling the faithful to plant that next round of crops, Farm Town (by Slashkey) and FarmVille (by Zynga).  Here I’ll attempt to explain the differences between the two, while reaffirming why you and all of your friends are already playing one while the other sits alone, barren, and withered.

Two Games Enter…

In June of 2009, two games were added to Facebook that would together soon be ruining the productivity of millions.  They were both about farms.  They both had customizable player avatars. They both asked the player to click in order to till the virtual soil so that he/she could plant time-sensitive produce. They both had the player come back later to click those fully grown fruits, veggies, or flowers for money and experience.  As a matter-of-fact by the time I started playing Farm Town and FarmVille (October-ish 2009) the two were so similar that I often wondered why one of the companies responsible hadn’t received a cease-and-desist letter. Hell, maybe one of them has, maybe I should do more research. What I do know is that as of December 2009, the Facebook application directory listed FarmVille with over 72.5 million active users, while it’s twin brother Farm Town had only 18.4 million.  They were both in the top ten most popular games, but I guarantee that the Farm Town people are a little pissy about the whole thing.

The gameplay screen for Farm Town looks almost identicle to...

Are they really that similar?

In a word, HELL YEA THEY ARE (I know that’s more than “a” word).  Playing both Farm Town and FarmVille side by side for review gave me déjà vu.  Both games start you out by asking you name your farm and create a farmer to work your land.  In both games you then purchase seeds from the market and click on an available piece of plowed land to plant your newly purchased seeds.  FarmVille and Farm Town both ask you to come back hours or day later (in real world time) to harvest you newly grown crops for currency and experience.  In both games the cash earned is used to buy more seeds, animals, or farm decor, while the experience is used to unlock new and exciting seeds and decor.  The games both even allow you to spend real world cash to buy special decorations that are either unavailable for purchase by in-game currency or just really expensive.  Really that’s about all there is to the two games, buy, plant, sell your harvest and repeat until you get sick of the whole thing.

The gameplay screen from FarmVille

So what’s the difference?

So why does FarmVille have over 50 million more active user than Farm Town?  Well there are a few reasons that jump out at me personally.

Avatar Customization

When you first start playing the game you get to customize and avatar.  I like my avatars to have a nice chocolaty tone.  Farm Town only allowed a weird pale grey, while FarmVille had a variety of choices in the brown family.  +1 to FarmVille.

Graphics

The visuals for the individual plants, animals, trees, and even buildings seem to have a brighter, happier tone and that‘s what you want from this type of game. Tone aside, the plants images in particular have richer detail and a brighter color pallet across the board and really seem more carefully designed in FarmVille. The visuals in Farm Town aren’t bad; they just feel bland by comparison. +1 to FarmVille.

Variety

The key to success in both games is not losing money to ruined crops. Plant something that take one day to grow and come to check on it in two and you’ll find a shriveled mass where your plant used to be. The crafty farmer solves this by planting things that will bloom when you can check back into the game. FarmVille supports this type of play with plants that have a wide range of grow times. Farm Town also has a range of grow time but not as much variability. +1 to FarmVille.

Interface

When I say interface I’m talking about what the player in real life that translates into stuff that happens on screen. Farm Town and FarmVille are games where you really just click the left-mouse button. Farm Town makes you click a menu icon, then click a somewhere on the screen. FarmVille detect where your pointer is on screen and perform the correct action when you click. That means less clicks, and les clicks is good. +1 to FarmVille.

FarmVille Animals

Animals

The area where FarmVille really jumps ahead of its competition is the use of animals. Animals in Farm Town are just props. They are cute, and help make you plot-o-land looks more like someplace Old McDonald would live, but that’s it. In FarmVille the animals do all that AND give you a source of reoccurring cash. +1 to FarmVille.

And the winner is…FarmVille

All around FarmVille is just the better game. It looks nicer, is easier to play, and has more opportunities to build an visually interesting, profitable farm. Farm Town isn’t bad, it just isn’t as good. It’s really a shame, because it a world where FarmVille doesn’t exist, I could see Farm Town being one of the top three games on Facebook, maybe even number one.