FarmVille Phenomenon

What is the game which is played by 1% of world population every month? 

That's right, welcome to FarmVille with population 82.4 million players (as for May 2010). Some 30 millions of them check their crops daily.

This mean that 20% of all Facebook users login FarmVille every month to plant, tend and harvest virtual crops, over and over and over again. And folks from the company behind the game, Zynga, say that it's only the beginning - and they already released iPhone app, showed in most recent Steve Jobs presentation. 

Wow, I am not really a big gamer geek (regardless of what you all think, I only play Scrabble on iPad recently). But it is still fascinating for me - what is the key to the success of this shit-graphic, repetitive and extremely simplified game that looks like rip-off from early Nintendo adventure games?

There are a number of factors here, all purely hypothetical and only based on surveys rather than well controlled studies. 

First - social factor - if a player persuades their Facebook friends to become their FarmVille "neighbours", they can be rewarded for fertilizing their friends' fields or feeding their hogs. 

Playing games like FarmVille is “intimate, yet public.” You can publish your accomplishments to your Facebook Wall for all to see, in case you want your friends to know that you’ve mastered the art of farming strawberries or won a blue ribbon for your prize eggplants. Obviously, this is something that non-invasively keep people in touch as well - a phenomenon I call 'ping communication' - when you don't actually exchange any particular information with your social contact online, but rather virtually 'poke' each other, or send invite for some stupid quiz or send a pig to friend in FarmVille. 

What's more, FarmVille mechanics is based on the oldest action-reward idea in the gaming history, borrowed from old Chinese games, which are in turn based on old Japanese RPG games. You have control, you make an action, which will have predictable result. You don't make an action on time, and your crop will die. So you have to come back to the game after a while when you leave the Facebook to maintain your farm. Simple. 

And it's extremely simple to play as well. Almost every age group from teenagers to older players can set up their own virtual farm within couple of minutes. Simple diagonal layout borrowed from those old Japanese games combined with straightforward options menu, and minimalist iconic graphics, makes the game learning process almost instant. And the fact that you have to get back to the game regularly, works like a virtual pet, a Tamagotchi - you have to nurture it and look after it every day, otherwise it will be sad and will die soon after.

We can add more theories to it, like an urban fantasy of having farm, but at the end of the day, it seems that FarmVille is a masterpiece of simple combination of all the things we already know in gaming - simplicity of interface, control, predictability, direct action-reward model and social networking. All those aspects shifter social online gaming to the mainstream. Today's average social online game player is 43-year-old women and generally housewives staying with kids at home. But FarmVille population covers all group ages, which is absolutely unprecedented phenomenon. 

It also looks like Zynga reported a revenue of over $200mln in 2009 and FarmVille is definitely one of their key product. It's a good figure, but not as much as you would think. There are no exact numbers on how many users actually spend money, but it looks like only a small percentage of users do so. To put it in the context - Blizzard, with biggest online MMORPG game World of Warcraft (population of ONLY 11.5 millions - 8 times smaller than FV), gets an average profits of $100mln PER MONTH. Console games producers also report much more profits than Zynga. 

But Zynga strategy of keeping it simple and continuously expanding FV universe by a small elements keeps users logged in for a long time. Ultimately, they seem to learn well from other games producers and combine best features to keep you attached to your farm, so the future... might be interesting ;-)

[photo credit: Wired.com, Wikipedia, Zynga]

Batman Is Dead (At Least Three Times)

No tech-geek stuff today. But comic books - yes. Graphic novels - definitely.

Comic books are like a modern mythology for me - they reflect different anxieties, hopes, dreams and urban legends circulating in our society. They reflect our mundane reality but wrapped in symbols, metaphors and supernatural heroes with amazing abilities - same as in ancient mythology. It is especially reflected between comic book realities and political world.

Examples? There are numerous.

In 1983 just after Chernobyl disaster, Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore release first issue of 'Watchmen' - a brutal and more realistic take on superheroes, set in the world where Cold War never ended. When George W. Bush became a president of US in 2001 it wasn't long before Lex Luthor became president of US in special issue (Superman: Lex 2000). Shortly after attacks on 11 september 2001 Marvel released a special 'black issue' with superheroes perspective on WTC attacks (Amazing Spider-man vol. 2 #36). Shortly after invasion on Iraq, Frank Miller announces 'Holy Terror, Batman!', where Batman takes on Al-Qeada ;-) It's yet to be released.

Graphic novels are especially worth attention, because they are frequently pieces of art, linking great drawings with top class story plot.

Batman was always my favorite character in every aspect: complex, dark, intelligent, psychological and... he is human at the end of the day. So I keep a track of the fresh and interesting novels that coming out with this superhero. Today a quick glance into three interesting position I've just finished.

They are all about Batman's dead.

First is 'Whatever Happened to the Capped Crusader?' written by Neil Gaiman. The story is simple and very bizarre - in a Gaiman style. It's Batman's funeral and different good and bad characters are coming to pay their respects. Some of them have story to tell on how the Batman died, and those stories are very, very different from each other... It's a short but amusing story kept in the atmosphere of Gaiman's 'Sandman'.

Neil Gaiman was always great in redefining the meaning of graphic novel, and he did it perfectly with 'Sandman' series. Those stories prove, in my view, that he should abandon writing books and focus on graphic novels. I would give him, not 'Maus', Pulitzer for the 'Sandman'...

Second is 'Batman: RIP' - the official Grant Morrison take on Batman's dead. Bruce Wayne took part in a strange experiment long time ago - scientists closed him for 10 days in the deprivation chamber. He experienced himself on completely different level, barely surviving mentally the strain of delusions and hallucinations generated by the isolation in chamber. But suddenly years later, the experience comes back, and the line between reality and delusion becomes very thin for Batman...

This story is an ultimate masterpiece, very violent but very intelligent, with deep reflections on human nature, personality and fragility of mind. It takes you in this best place where novel can take you, with beautiful illustration by Tony Daniel.

Finally, there is also Batman's dead in 'Final Crisis' - again written by Grant Morrison - it's one of the coolest graphic novels I read in years. The story unveils a horrible success of Darkseid, who uses all modern media - TV, radio, mobile phones, internet - to infect almost entire population of Earth with neurolinguistic virus he sourced from other dimension alien technology. Superman and other superheroes who survived the virus have to travel between alternative realities before Darkseid takes over the entire universe. This is heavy and quite strange story, and I won't tell you how Batman dies - read it yourself ;-)

[images credit: DC]  

Bionic Hands and Gesture Computing

Everyone wants to have a bionic hand, right? Well, I do, and recently two very good models appeared on the prosthetic market. 

First is i-Limb Pulse (above) made of aluminium chasis, is one of the toughest bionic devices create to date, supporting a load up to 90 kg. Additionally, you can apply fast, high-frequency pulses to apply greater force for activities of daily living such as tying shoelaces, gripping a light switch cord or crushing someones hand. What's more, this terminator's fist analyses your myoelectric impulses in real-time to adjust gain and control strategies to your individual action model. No price available yet, but Touch Bionics claim they have already upgraded 1200 users with it.

Second, US-based company BeBionic not only offers you mioelectric bionic hand, but you can also get bionic wrist and customized artificial skin options. BeBionic Hand (above) is not as sophisticated in terms of grip options and patterns as i-Limb, but it comes close, plus it will give you more angles of flexibility with the BeBionic Wrist, to be released later this year. However, guys from BeBionic made an attempt to make the look of the limb less robotic. You have 19 skin shades available made of multi-layered blended silicon boosted with micro-pigmentation for additional depth and realism. Anyway, I prefer robotic than skin version. No price available as well...

Finally, finishing hands topic, there is a genius MIT project on gesture computing. Using $1 multicolour lycra gloves (above) and fairly simple camera you are able to operate on-screen objects (like 3D models or interfaces) using only your gestures. This is what we are waiting for, Minority Report and shit, it's coming baby, check out the clip below. 

[image credit: Touch Bionic, BeBionic, CSAIL]
[video credit: Robert Y. Wang/Jovan Popović]