FarmVille (FarmTown, CafeWorld, FishTown, YoVille, etc.)

For those of you who have a FaceBook account or have heard of FaceBook, you've likely also heard of FarmVille, or FarmTown, or CafeWorld, or FishTown, or YoVille, or PetVille, or FrontierVille (I'm not making these up), you get the picture.

If you haven't heard of any of the above, let me fill you in. FarmVille and FarmTown are virtual farms, where you raise, water, and harvest crops. CafeWorld is a virtual Cafe that you own, where you 'hire' your other friends to serve other friends food, while you cook virtual food. I have not visited the other 'towns' or 'villages' or 'worlds' but I can assume they're pretty much the same.

Now, what I want to know, is what do farmers or cafe owners or fish owners think of these games? Because, and I'm pretty sure I'm right here, you don't harvest crops by clicking on them and getting virtual money to buy other crops, to then harvest by simply clicking on them again.

Now, it's not just you on this farm (or cafe) you can invite other friends on FaceBook to join in, send each other virtual 'gifts' (Trees, cows, barns, hay) or to fertilize your crops so you yield XP points.

Now, on the top of the FarmVille screen on FaceBook, it says "Liked by over 1,500,000 people'.

Over 1,500,000 people visit that virtual farm every. Single. Day. For who knows how long. Some people could spend hours clicking on crops and gaining 'XP points'.

What's the point? FaceBook was made to bring friends closer and keep in touch with them, now it's turned into a big money scheme. (Yes, do get 'Cash' in FarmVille, you have to pay real cash.)

In the United States alone there are 131,939,680 members on FaceBook, and as you read this several more people have joined. Now, the creator of FaceBook is very rich, I don't know exactly when he started the website, but I do know in 2007, when people started joining and the site really took off, he made $150 million. Can you imagine how many times that number has increased? Can you guess how much FarmVille makes now?

They make $52,000 an hour.

$1.2 million in a day.

$8.8 million in a week.

38 MILLION US DOLLARS a month!

That is what america is spending money and time on.

I'm done with my rant now, let me just make it clear however that I have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING against FaceBook, I just think that too many people are taking the site for granted.

P.S., The juggling tutorial WILL be coming, but probably not until after school starts, I'm still learning to juggle 3 balls. *sheepish grin*