Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Why Happy Farm Addictive?

No matter how you slice it, a simple game, known as Happy Farm, which simulates the whole process of running a farm, has quickly taken hold on many SNS(Social Networking Services) sites. Since its debut, the game has effectively absorbed a group of loyal gamers who tirelessly visited and took care of "their farms" on a regular basis. Most of the gamers even paid visits to their virtual farms more frequently than to loo. In fact, to some gaming loyalists, they were engaging in some kind of business instead of simply playing an online Flash game.

I think one feature of the game could help explain the absorption, which I personally call "limited playability". Online games with this feature don't offer you an unlimited satisfaction, instead, your content is accomplished piecemeal. You are not supposed to play the game through at one go but required to come back every so often in order to continue your game play.

I found recently many games had started to tap into this characteristic and had surprisingly scored well. Spending a lot of time at one go on any given game would bore even a hardcore player quickly, however, spending like 5%-10% of your time every day on a game is traditionally defined as fun!

It is not hard to guess that limited playability, a new big idea from the game industry, would soon serve as powerful ammunition to gamers across the globe. Just brace yourself.

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