Damn Facebook Apps! (Part One)

If there's one reason why I'm not coming out with a new blog post every day, it's because of these Facebook apps. Some of these free games are just too addicting. I can't log into two of them right now, so I'll write about them instead. (LOL!) I don't want to just throw them at my poor readers all at once, so I'll be coming out with a second entry in a few more days, featuring two more games that just take up too much of my time.

First up, we have FarmVille. This was created by a company called Zynga, and it's one of the more popular apps on Facebook. I resisted even looking at it (or any of the other games) for months, but finally gave in due to Nikki's insistance. Damn her. It's pretty basic. You buy crops, animals, and trees... and then you harvest them. There are also decorations, which can be anything from houses to fences to ponds. Now they have these cool Halloween decorations. I plan on keeping these all year round. It suits the darker side of my Gemini personality. Mwah ha ha ha!

Click any pic for a larger version!

My pink cottage with pink fence and pink cherry trees. There's a cat that jumps out of the pumpkin sometimes. You can see some of my neighbors on the bottom, notably my own Nikki, and fellow bloggers Justine and Shauna. Hey, gals!

My "Forbidden Graveyard" complete with Little Shop of Horrors-inspired plant monster, gravestones, and creepy fences.

That's a *lot* of strawberry and chocolate cows! The elephants were a limited time thing, and you can "harvest" circus peanuts from them. The ugly ducklings in the far left pen turn into those swans after a period of time. Go figure.

I got rid of the white sheep (just like the non-flavored cows), in favor of these poor black sheep. This is my Black Sheep Sanctuary, in celebration of all those who are cast away for being different. Hey, sounds familiar in some way...

Anyway, now I have 41 neighbors (for whom I can perform menial chores, to get some cash and experience), a plantation-sized farm, and over 600,000 coins in the bank. I have a cute pink cottage with a pink fence and cherry trees. I also have a graveyard with tombstones and fresh graves. Well, they look fresh, anyway. There are at least two other apps similar to this, namely Farm Town and (Lil) Farm Life. I don't play Farm Town, but I do play the other... mainly for the cool Halloween decorations, of which they have much more than FarmVille.

Another one by Zynga is Cafe World. In this one, you run your own little cafe, and you get to cook up such dishes as spaghetti and meatballs, roasted chicken, and french onion soup. These things can take anywhere from five minutes (cheeseburgers) to two days (pot roast) to cook. Once they're done, onto the counter they go for serving, and don't forget to clean your stove! You can "hire" friends to work at your cafe, but sadly, there is no involvement at all from said friends. Their avatar merely appears in your cafe and does it's animated business. There are lots of decorations and such in Cafe World. Tables cost from 900 to 25,000 Cafe Coins, and it's similar for chairs, stoves, wallpaper, doors, windows, etc.

My cafe. Notice the title. I'm the chef with purple hair, and I have 9 stoves, booyah! I'm cooking roasted chicken, pot roast, vampire-staked steak (yes, another Halloween special), and pizza... in a skillet, no less! Isaac from Becoming Isaac is one of my neighbors, but his cafe is always full of flies and stuff. He's probably off having a real life.

It's the cookbook! I do find it strange that you have to wait until a relatively high level, to cook such an elementary dish as spaghetti. I do like the voodoo chicken salad. When it's almost done, you can see the words, "casting spell" when putting the mouse cursor over the stove. It really is voodoo!

These games probably seem really silly and pointless when reading them about this, but they tend to draw you in. They're meant for casual use, since once you've set the crops or entrees in motion, you must wait a certain amount of time for them to finish. I find myself jumping from app to app, seeing what's ready to be served or sold at the market. I wouldn't want my food to spoil, or my crops to rot! Especially with Cafe World, I find myself thinking, "Hmm, the pizza takes five hours to cook, and will I be asleep when it finishes? What's on the calendar, will I be home then?"

So now it's well after 4 am and I'm finishing up a blog entry. That's not so unusual for me. But it would probably be about 5 am now if both the aforementioned apps weren't experiencing "technical difficulties." I think I need to go to an AA meeting. Apps Anonymous!

If you're on Facebook and play these games (or are about to after reading this.. don't kill me later!), send me a Facebook friend request. And stay tuned for part two, if I can stop playing long enough.