Notes About Games

Would you like to be a farmer? Perhaps not in the ‘real world’ but in the virtual world of Farmville, millions of people have shouted a resounding Yes! In this hugely popular computer game you begin with a small plot of land and plant crops, hopefully becoming wildly successful and creating a huge farm with a gigantic manor and lots of money for luxuries. Obviously, it’s critical to know which crops to plant because a wise beginning will help you to rise faster.

You will want to acquire as much money as possible and one of the best crops to grow is peas. As with any crop, you will have to understand your costs before you can accurately predict your profits. Your pea harvest will bring in 381 coins and your costs are, fortunately, much less. First, you must plant your crop which will cost 190 coins. Then once it is ready for harvest, you must pay 15 coins for the harvesting and plowing. This leaves a healthy profit of 176 coins per crop which is an excellent Return On Investment in this staggeringly popular game.

There are two other crop considerations in Farmville. The first is that some plants will “wilt” in a very few hours. This means that if you’re not on your computer for several hours your crops will die and all the money you’ve invested in them will be lost. So if you’re going to bed for around eight hours then you’ll want to plant something that won’t wilt while you’re asleep.

A third complication in crop choice is that certain wonderful crops aren’t available at lower levels because they are rewards and advantages to climbing up the game ladder. The good news is that’s it’s not too hard to reach Level 5 and at that time you can choose the plant pumpkins. This is a great crop if you’re going to be away from your computer for a time because they aren’t harvested for eight hours and then it takes another eight hours for them to wilt or die of neglect. Sixteen hours is a very long time to be away in this farming community. Pumpkins have a total cost of 30 coins but they bring in 68 coins. Not as good as peas for pumpkins can handle neglect much better than peas.

At the lower levels, your options are very limited and it’s wise to save your money so that you can climb into the higher levels with more privileges. At Level1 of the game, you can plant Sweet Yams (matures in 6 hours), White Corn (6 hours) and Sweet Corn (6 hours) which all offer a profit of 100 coins when harvested. There is a lot of strategy when successfully playing Farmville because another choice for Level1 is Strawberries (4 hours) which pays only 10 pitiful coins. You won’t get to the top levels quickly with payments like that!

When you are into the upper levels of the game, where the best Farmville players hang out, you will find opportunities to swiftly accumulate points. At Level50 you can plant Lemon Balm which matures in only six hours and pays 45 coins. Keep in mind that there are approximately 24 hours in a virtual farming day, which means you can plant that crop four times each day for a total of 180 coins. But if you won’t be on your computer every six hours or so, consider Cabbage which pays 233 coins – but doesn’t mature for two full days. Obviously, what you plant depends upon how intense and serious you are about the game.

A sure way to lose is to be haphazard about the crops you plant. “Hmmm … Pink Hibiscus are so pretty and I just love Sweet Potatoes so I think I’ll plant those” is a recipe for failure. It’s possible to be analytical about what you plant – and also have fun. At the very least, know costs, intervals and profits of whatever crops are available at your level. Further, figuring out the profits per hour will help you to see the best place to spend your time. Treat this like a real business and the reward are sure to come.

Keep in mind that you must, must, must know how long it will be until your crop wilts. If you leave it in the ground too long, it’s finished and you will have lost your entire investment in seed and work. Forget-Me-Nots are an advanced level crop, but the cost is 15 coins for ploughing and an amazing 725 coins for the seed! That would be a miserable loss, one that might cause you to lose your enthusiasm for Farmville. That would be a shame – especially since it’s a preventable mistake.

To create Farmville mastery, study everything you possibly can about Farmville crops, trees and animals.