What makes me uneasy about FarmVille

[yakalskovich]

What makes me uneasy about FarmVille is not that it's eaten the Nazgul's brain at the moment; worse brain-eatages have occurred, for example when I first discovered the old Discworld RPG back in 2004. The crack that is RPing (in contrast to the more sedate and ponderous nose-powder that is fanfic) so totally took me in for a while, I even did set alarms for it, and that seems to be an alarm sign.

It's not that Zynga, the company that makes it, is probably quite evil, and Facebook definitely is.

It's that there are no seasons!

You can plant whatever whenever you want to. There is no lambing season, no sowing in spring, no asparagus that stops on June 24th latest, no cabbage for winter, no St. Martin's geese, no blackberries belonging to the devil after October 31st...

Okay, making people wait for a result for a year would be counter-productive. But why not set random shorter season? Why not allow sheep tupping only on a Friday, and the sowing of certain crops only during the first week of the month, and so on? What makes real farming in real life what it is is seasons, and FarmVille totally eliminated that.

We first world people are used to having strawberries and tomatoes in the supermarket all the time, to mushrooms all year round, to green beans flown in from Egypt in winter, and to fresh flowers from Nigeria at Christmas. The globalised world is ignoring the seasons, so why should FarmVille reintroduce them? FarmVille farmers don't really want to keep up all night in the lambing shed at the dead of winter; they don't want to harvest a surfeit of cherries that they don't know what to do with, or do nothing between waking and sleeping but pluck apples and make cider in autumn. They don't want to race a thunderstorm for the wheat harvest, or pull a calf out by the feet. It's sanitised agriculture with purple cows.

There would be nothing wrong with it -- it is a game! -- except that it suggests to million of city dwellers that farming is a sanitary, fun business that brings forth bounty without season, without dirt, without suffering.

And that's demeaning to everything mankind did since the neolithic revolution.-

Comments

[yakalskovich]

Oh, there are those market halls in Helsinki! And then there are seasonal events when all the fishing boats come in and sell things from shipboard on the harbour wall.

And then the open markets. And the flea markets. And...

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

Yes! The market halls down on the waterfront.

Oh, you've been! I had my favorite fish vendor, my favorite beef vendor, my favorite chicken vendor.

Even my favorite olive vendor!

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

The Russians used to have an amazing flea market -- I think to the north of the city? (We had to take the tram to get there)

[yakalskovich]

Oh yes, that is not far from where one of my friends lives, in Hietalahti.

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

I love Finland! I could happily retire there.

[yakalskovich]

Me too!! And never leave again.

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

My friends have a summer home in Puumala with no electricity, no running water, nichts. One literally has to do everything by hand -- washing plates in the river, etc -- and then use lanterns at night.

That experience was hands-down one of the highlights of the year I lived there.

[yakalskovich]

Oh yes -- those summer houses rule!

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

I want one of those!

And a town house in Helsinki (I lived on Vironkatu, right in the heart of the city!).

[yakalskovich]

A flat somewhere in Helsinki, with one of those creaking ancient elevators in the staircase!

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

Oh I love those hissi!!

Until I saw Eva Green die in James Bond...

[yakalskovich]

With the one difference that the water is about three feet deep there in Venice. No building could ever sink in it. You'd end up in the middle of a tremendous pile of rubble.

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

Tell that to Vesper.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

yakalskovich is just demonstrating the principle of "brilliant out-there show-runners and demanding, emotionally invested fen actually call forth and inspire each other," rewriting the end of the last Bond both realistically and happily (thereby erasing all the future ie. older Bond films?) ;=

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

:D


Hmmmmm, a return to happy James Bond.

I can't even imagine it.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Nope. That was the good thing, or one of the good things, about the new pilot. Happy Bond would have to be "Die Zwei".

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

I just want Daniel Craig and Judi Dench forever.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Yeah. I loved that pilot so very much ... after the secodn I worried and still worry if they won't keep it up. There was a Craigwithgun cover on my ex-magazine but it didn't look Bondy.

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

I love Daniel Craig in anything he does (he's going to be in the English "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and may I just say I already love it!).

I even swooned in Golden Compass.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Yeah, I always did. So far his "potatoe face" seems to have survived the fame - he's been liased with every pretty young actress before then already, although paired with my dearest Rachel Weisz, that is one dream team - hate that these film couples always fail. Also tumblr can turn me off any actor with its "OMG HE S SO PERFECT -> I LOVE HIM"

That was a great movie, so of course everyone else thought it was shit. I had seen it in the theatre first, most impressive. I so wished for sequels - as with A Series of U. E. - see, doomed, if I like it, individually, it's not enough against the masses ;P

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

I wondered how come they didn't make the other films. I even asked someone about that the other day.

I have not seen the Series of UE films (is there more than one?) but I loved the books! That held me every year while I was waiting for the next HP to come out.

NOTHING could turn me off of Daniel Craig. He won my heart in "Defiance" and then again in "Munich" (I'm Jewish) and nothing can make me find him anything short of yummy. When he made James Bond, I was beside myself. Favorite spy plus favorite actor = UNF!!!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

*finally realised -i- wasn't talking with yakal anymore headdesk g*

I just read they even consider Rachel as the next Bond "girl", which might be tricky for her relationship or career - or wise, since he hooks up with whomever he films (inkl. the German Heike).
But if the film is good, it'd be fantastic, I never have movies where I like both partners (anymore).

No, there is only the first, which was the first three books combined and had Jim Carey as the baddie and Jude Law as a shadow/author voice. But that didn't matter - the children were so wonderful, and the look of the film! So good :(
I didn't like the first three books - should never have been compared with HP! - then finally got into them when the formula varied, became a real fan in the carnival and by the penultimate peril I loved it fiercely - the final one could never be as good as that one.

Yeah, those two I haven't seen, stopped going to the cinema a decade ago, but I saw him in - stuff BEFORE The Ice House, only I can't find it on imdb *frownworry* and of course Love is the Devil and everything up to Sylvia (I loathe Gw.) where his voice was incredible, though some of the DVDs I haven't watched yet. I think I'd like to listen to Sylvia.

Yeah, I couldn't believe one of my favourites got the part. And then I hated most of the comments, even though I knew they'd all change their tune - which they did, fickle superficial peoples ;=

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

This entire week has been that way for me. *giant face palm*

I don't compare the books to HP(as far as I am concerned, there is nothing comparable to HP! JKR is a genius); I just thoroughly enjoy them (I train young athletes -- very young -- and have mandatory reading hour during camp so that they can relax with something other than DSI or whatever those things are called. Not a technophile).

The best way to survive a fandom is to steer clear! I have absolutely nothing to do with the Supernatural or HP fandoms as I am quite certain they would make me hate them. LOL

But nothing could make me feel anything short of worshipful lust for Daniel Craig. :)

[idylchild.livejournal.com]

You're in luck :)

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20505712,00.html

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Nah, -he-s the lucky guy *g* I like they did it secretly, and I hope it works - maybe now that he's looking older ;P while she of course just gets thinner. Thanks!!!