Scarecrows

I've become addicted to the farm games, Farm Town and Farmville. They are both run within the Facebook platform and easy to play. You can become a farmer and choose which crops to plant and where. Harvesting the crops will generate 'coins' and those are used to buy more seed and after awhile you can make enough 'cash' to buy yourself a bigger spread, a tractor, some palm trees and a farm house complete with a yard full of chickens. It's great fun and it's obviously a lesson on how to live the American Dream. The only thing missing are the Hispanic laborers to harvest the crop, but if you have become a successful farmer, you have bought a giant mechanical harvester to do that work for you and they would be out of a job anyway. That's a plus of course, as the labor could be a drain on your profits…a little bit. On the downside of all this joyful agricultural frenzy, both games are Beta versions and so they have 'issues' at times. Frustrating but minor.

On the other hand, although they have generated a mob of fans, they have also created a similar sized group of those that see the addictive qualities of the game quite clearly and are enemies of the game. They jeer and point fingers at us. If they could, they would throw virtual stones at us and our chickens. They would also trample down the corn and the marigolds if given half a chance. Luckily for us, the technology hasn't reached the point where they can do that, but it's only a matter of time.

I guess I don't understand those who would deprive us of our simple pleasures. We aren't hurting them at all, our addiction for the farm life and making virtual cash is a private one…much like the addiction of…wait, I'm, trying to think of something similar. Give me a minute, I've got some asparagus to harvest and then I'll be right back.