Farmville Friday

I'm a bit late posting today. In truth, I can't believe I'm still up, but the dryer isn't finished.

Pet dogs have arrived on FV. Several higher level neighbors bought them immediately, getting the mutt version for 300K. There are three other kinds of puppies, but those cost Farmbucks, which means real money.

The puppies must be fed daily for 14 days or they will run away. I was extremely reluctant to add one more feeding to my day. I have the 7 real critters to deal with, after all. Do I need a virtual critter to worry about, as well? Apparently, they become dogs after 14 days, and who knows if or how often they must be fed after that.

Then I visited Ruth E.'s farm and her puppy Spot followed me around as I fertilized and barked at me. It was perhaps the cutest thing I've yet seen on FV, and my heart was softened toward the possibility of owning a dog.

However, while cruising the "news" section of farmville.com, I read numerous complaints about puppies disappearing, puppies not responding to feeding, puppies running away and having to be searched for, and even the gold being returned to banks after the puppies were purchased and vanished. Mostly I read a lot of complaints from people who might find better uses for their time than searching for virtual lost dogs. You would think they had spent 300K of real gold the way some of the posts read (realizing I am writing almost daily on the subject, I understand I must be careful in my glass house which stones I choose to throw).

I suspect some of these new owners have never dealt with real puppies or real farms. I was not surprised  that the creatures should run off or hide. That's what farm puppies do.

I have the gold, but it may be wise to wait a bit for all the glitches to get resolved before spending it.
Then, there were complaints about the dogs available for Farmbucks. I learned FV has 70 levels. You start with 4 Farmbucks, and only get 1 buck per level after that. At 65 Farmbucks, one "pure bred" dog is nearly impossible to buy without spending real money to get fake Farmbucks ($50 for 310 Farmbucks, and yes, I was curious enough to look it up). This fact has caused a lot of annoyance and some foul language to boot. It is both comforting and sad to learn people exist who are more addicted to FV than I am, and very sad that they should be so violent in their condemnation as money-hungry leeches of the people who created the game for them. It could be likened to the curses of the addict for his drug dealer.

While discussing the puppies briefly this morning with My Dear Friend, I pointed out that buying Farmbucks could be likened to spending money on movie night. If someone played FV continuously, enjoyed it, and budgeted for it, I cannot give grief to that person for spending money on it. It is the same as buying a video game, and people do that all the time.

I sound like I'm setting up my arguments for buying Farmbucks, but I don't think I am. I've always preferred mutts to pure breds, and I have the gold for the mutt.

I will name her Beryl.