Launching with exotic breeds, like Golden Pheasants, Palm Cocktaoos and Silver Arabian Horses, players will have a chance to care for their newborns and raise them to maturity while earning rewards for good parenting. Animals in the flock will serve a purpose, like laying eggs or providing wool, but some of the animals in the game will become loyal companions like pets. And there will be cat and dog farmhands that can assist with tasks like picking flowers and digging holes.
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Gaming PlayStation Xbox Nintendo. Movies TV Comics. Star Wars Marvel. Filed under: News Mobile iOS. Partly as a response to that image of strung-out adolescent boys, products aimed more at women and at an older market have tended not to call themselves games at all.
The Wii console has been marketed as "Wii Fit" — the adverts often portray it as a piece of exercise equipment not a games console. Nintendo DS games have been marketed as "brain training" — focusing on a serious purpose rather than play. Although research has shown that the Wii Fit isn't as effective as going to the gym , and there's little evidence that brain training can help slow mental decline , the "training" packaging helps to sell these games to a demographic that might be unwilling to buy something purely for fun.
It's increasingly easy now to find people who say "I'm not a gamer, I don't play computer games" but, when challenged, will admit that they play Angry Birds on their iPhone, or MafiaWars on Facebook, or solitaire on their PC during quiet times at work — if those aren't computer games, what are they?
FarmVille, of course, is unashamed about being a game. It's partly that playful style that makes it a good partner for Lady Gaga, an artist famed for antics and experimentation.
Gaga has also used social media to develop a deep connection with her fans — she surpassed Britney Spears last year as the most-followed user on Twitter, and topped a survey of the most popular musical artists in online social media. But Gaga isn't the only musician tapping into the increasing reach of games.
Adrian Hon, CCO of Six to Start, a games company that made an online game Ununited Eurasia for rock band Muse and has just created one for indie band Death Cab for Cutie , says: "Games are a good way for bands to connect with their younger fans, to engage with the sort of people who buy music and go to concerts.
Labels and publishers have seen the internet primarily as a place to advertise and a source of worrying piracy, but artists tend to be much more interested in the creative possibilities. In all this enthusiasm, one should remember that FarmVille has not been without its detractors. In a now-notorious speech, Pincus, talking about the early days of his company Zynga, said: "I did every horrible thing in the book to get revenues right away. I mean, we gave our users poker chips if they downloaded this Zwinky toolbar which was like, I don't know, I downloaded it once and couldn't get rid of it.
We did anything possible just to get revenues. The social element of the game means that non-players get deluged by FarmVille spam. And game theorist Ian Bogost has suggested that social games are more destructive of personal time than other kinds of gaming, saying that they "abuse us while we are away from them, through obligation, worry, and dread over missed opportunities".
When I shut down a console game, it pauses the action and allows me to resume it at a later time. If I try to step away from FarmVille, I know it will continue without me, and I'll miss opportunities to grow crops or receive special items, making games such as this potentially more compulsive and harder to quit.
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