A portion of a Country Life farm on FacebookCredits:
screenshot taken with Windows Vista
If you are among the millions of cyber farmers tending to crops through any of massively multi-player online games (MMO) that are available through Facebook's Application Directory then you know what these browser based applications (BBA) are all about. Or, at least you think you know what they are ALL about. Many of us have played Zynga's FarmVille, hoards of players have sampled Slashkey's Farm Town. The two games seemed locked in their own endless version of "keeping up with the Joneses", and the recent retooling of Farm Town has even fixed many of the complaints against the application-- it now resembles its cyber rival even more closely.
But, while we have all been distracted by these two games, and others like them, it is possible that we have overlooked one of their quiet cousins, Country Life. While FarmVille and Farm Town lock us in a never ending cycle of plow-plant-harvest, Country Life takes the game a step further. The element of plowing has been eliminated completely, and players are given the opportunity to do more with their harvested goods.
In plain and simple terms, this means once you have planted some clover, and harvested it, it can be fed to cows or bees. The bees make honey and the cows produce milk. The milk can be put into a machine. Instead of merely selling the clover directly, you have increased its value by making the final products of honey and cheese. In addition, wheat can be fed to sheep which make wool, or the wheat can be turned into flour. Or, maybe you want to turn your tomatoes into ketchup, or grapes into wine? Its all a matter of how far you advance in the game, and how much time you want to put into playing.
The main complaint,with the game, is the fact that there are not that many elements. There are only six different crops: clover, wheat, corn, tomatoes, carrots and grapes. Each has a purpose, but those are limited as well since there are only cows, sheep, chickens, rabbits and bees to feed. There are four machines that can be bought or acquired as gifts, but in the end it is not like having the huge menus that are available on Farm Town or FarmVille. The game is in Beta so there is hope that some of these issues will change in the future. The option of going a step further can be appealing, and entertaining, as there is nothing quite as disarming as a hungry little rabbit looking up at you with big doe eyes.
Another problem with the game is the fact that the items are expensive, and some are available only through RC (Ranch Cash) which can either be purchased or earned by completing certain offers. Some items are not available until higher levels, and without them you cannot make products that sell for higher prices. This means that neighbors are necessary for success in the game, and those neighbors must be playing at higher levels in order to have access to those higher level items. This leads us to another drawback with the game. There are not many people playing, so finding neighbors might mean joining one of the Country Life Groups through Facebook. If you are squeamish about connecting to strangers, then a Gaming ID is always a good defensive step.
The game is extremely child friendly, and can even be educational for younger players as they can see a cartoonish representation of how a lot of the goods, that we buy at the store, originate on farms. Math skills are utilized as players calculate how many seeds they can purchase. The game does take a bit of planning as some of the crops have short, or even odd, growing times. Clover takes four hours, to reach harvesting maturity, while tomatoes need 16, and corn requires 20. If you want to make cheese or ketchup, and you have a lot of clover or tomatoes to convert, then you might find yourself sitting for awhile to get the job done. This makes Country Life a suitable option for a family project as the responsibilities could be shared among a household of players.
Country Life does not include a chat applet, and this means that even though you can visit other farms, to complete tasks, you do not actually see other players or interact with them. The social element of the game takes place through gifting, and as mentioned earlier those gifts are very important to success in the game.
If players are looking for support, they will most likely have to go through one of the groups on Facebook, and access the discussion boards. Search engine inquiries will point the way to the application link and little else.
All in all, if you enjoy the idea of cyber farming, and you want something just a little different, then Country Life is a cute little application with a lot of potential. The graphics are cute, and small kids will no doubt enjoy the process of feeding the animals, and watching the cheese machine pulse with activity. So, why not click your way to the Country Life where you can role play some clean country living?
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