Is Farmville a success because it’s a social obligation?
Farmville is popular because [it] entangles users in a web of social obligations. When users log into Facebook, they are reminded that their neighbors have sent them gifts, posted bonuses on their walls, and helped with each others’ farms. In turn, they are obligated to return the courtesies. As the French sociologist Marcel Mauss tells us, gifts are never free: they bind the giver and receiver in a loop of reciprocity. It is rude to refuse a gift, and ruder still to not return the kindness.[11] We play Farmville, then, because we are trying to be good to one another. We play Farmville because we are polite, cultivated people.
Or, put another way, we guilt each other into playing a shitty game. Admittedly, most Farmville players aren’t deliberately trying to ensnare me in an infinite loop of guilt-induced aggravations–and at least a few of them must actually enjoy the game1. However, Farmville and other noisy Facebook apps (Pieces of flair, Mafia wars, etc.) are the Internet version of Amway, and it doesn’t seem particularly polite or cultivated to foist unwanted, poor-quality garbage on your friends.
Via Boing Boing
- As a devoted SimCity fan, I understand the appeal of games you can’t “win,” Magnasanti notwithstanding. ↩
