We Farm Review

We Farm is the type of game that drives anyone over the age of 30 (should be 12) insane. There is no story, no winner, no loser... so really no point. Much like Farmville before it, the games sole reason for existence is to hope that people become impatient and buy goods (Gro) via in-app pruchase to speed the game up. That and to sell advertising space to impressionable tweens.

The game is a simple clone of the Farmville idea that was made hugely popular on Facebook. You start with a farm, and you must build crops, animal pens, and other buildings to make money. Nothing is instant though, so instead of building up this great farm in a day, you have to wait around for a set amount of time to harvest/ milk cows/ whatever else there is to do. The more things that you do, the more experience you get which unlocks the ability to buy bigger and better things.

The problem for many people is that there is no way to lose. Your farm never fails, there is no ranking promotion you get for good crop placement, you just do whatever you want until you run out of money, then wait for your stuff to grow or mature.

To add some substance to the game, you can add friends to share your goods with. For instance, if you build a well on your property, you can sell Popsicle parties to anyone that wants one. You can also go to other peoples farms and buy their goods, gaining both parties XP. There's no real sense of necessary commerce going on, such as the trade of supplies that you can actually use, so it quickly becomes obvious that going to friends farms is just a way for ngmoco to get you to view more ads.

Somehow though, whether it be from the constant push notifications sent to you when something is completed (you can turn them off if you want) or just habit, you keep on playing. I've been "playing" We Farm for a few days now, each time wondering where my life is going. There really is infinite replay value because there is no end. Nobody wins. Ever.

To me, this game is just the embodiment to what happened when we started giving trophies to kids for participation. I really desperately want something to do in this game. I want to lower my crop prices and run my neighbor out of business. Maybe I could start a farmers market and then beat up my rivals Street Fighter style. I think this boils down to the difference between my Doom/Duke Nukem generation and the current Zynga playing one.

Oh, and my screen name is Chris148apps. Come buy a Popsicle party or something, I need the XP.