Overworked FarmVille Farmers Still Find Peace on the Farm

First things first, FarmVille has come a long way since its humble debut in the summer of 2009.
The peaceful, almost zen-like repetition of plowing, planting, and harvesting crops caught us all by surprise and as FarmVille Master's we have been hooked ever since. I felt as though  ”I couldn’t stop watching my crops”. Little by little new game concepts and features were introduced to spark our interest and occupy our time while waiting for our crops to grow. After all, what would a farm be without animals? Even Alien Cows, Unicorns, and the occassional winged Pegasus grew on us. Or a farm without Tractors? Wait, Combines you say? Perfection. We later welcomed other new tools such as Farmhands and Arborists which make our work a little easier.
Challenges of Mastery caught our attention and made us step up our farming game. If you are like me, there’s still some self resentment for selling off all those unwanted useless trees before Tree Mastery was introduced. Now, Mastery Signs are piling up and continue to keep piling (Animal Mastery? Check!). We saw buildings with purpose rise from one lone Chicken Coop to pimped out breeding Pens. Animals served a new purpose other than harvesting for Farm Coins and FarmVille Master's Breeders were born. Even keeping up with crops seemed like a chore, but one we happily accepted. Regular crops, Limited Edition crops, Permit required license to grow Farm Cash crops, Greenhouse hybrid crops, English Countryside exclusive crops, now Super Crops.

Yet, life on the farm still grew more complex as farmers ran out of things to do on their farms and invitations of city life lingered. Then, in an unexpected request FarmVille beckoned us with the enticing lure of a new farm in the English Countryside. It was almost too much to handle. How could we leave our precious farms behind? After all we had toiled over, organized, decorated, and crammed into that tiny space of virtual real estate to just pick up and relocate to the lush English soil seemed ludicrous. Yet most of us unwillingly ventured off to the rich soil of the EC and we found that having a second farm was not that bad. In fact, it was actually kind of pleasant after getting over the initial separation anxiety of leaving your Home farm. It was kind of nice to have a clean slate of green farm land just waiting for someone to spruce it up and give it a little TLC. I made the plan to devote my English Countryside farm entirely to crops and keep it clutter free with just the bare necessities of animal housing, a crafting Pub, and breeding facilities. As I raked in the the extra Farm Coin flow (like Cash Flow but with Farm Coins) and scooped up Mastery Signs quicker than ever, I concluded that having a second farm was very good indeed.
For awhile most farmers were happy with the pace of the game. To quest or not to quest, Farm Cash or Farm Coins- it didn’t really matter as long as there were options. One too many Bushels later, a whirlwind of new features settled on our farms seemingly overnight and not everyone knew what was going on. A Craftshop (different from our Crafting buildings) Crafting Silo, a Trading Post, Mastery Statues, Animal Mastery, and yesterday a new Wildlife Habitat flooded our farms. Some FarmVille Freaks who were away on summer vacation and not farming as much almost got lost in the shuffle, but luckily they had FarmVille Freak to keep them informed. Of course, the hardcore FarmVille Freaks kept up and managed to adapt despite any half-hearted rejections.
Then one day I woke up and realized that FarmVille was actually becoming a lot of work. The daily maintenance of my farm has me hoping there will be a Farm-All consumable “coming soon”. The Farm-All would be my go-to daily farm maintenance with the click of one single button. What would it do? The things that I do on my farm everyday. Read below for the recap.
The Farm-All consumable will harvest all of my animal related buildings with purpose:

• Chicken Coop
• Dairy Barns
• Horse Stable
• Nursery Barn
• Sheep Pen
• Pig Pen
• Turkey Roost
• Bee Hive
• Duck Pond
• Wildlife Habitat

In my ideal world, the Farm-All would also breed a few Sheep and Pigs and bottle the offspring until adulthood so that I can pick up some breeding points along the way. Just sayin’.
It will handle all my crafting related tasks by crafting my recipes, collecting my earnings, and claiming or fulfilling all my crop orders from these buildings with purpose:

• Crafting Building (Winery, Spa, and Bakery)
• Pub
• Craftshop
• Crafting Silo
• Trading Post
• Water Wheel
• Orchard(s)

It will also automatically complete any current Quests. While we’re dreaming we minds well throw in some neighbor visits and a handful of ribbon achievement tasks just in case FarmVille thinks we forgot about them.

Wouldn’t that be nice? Team Farm-Alls! Just think of how much Farm Cash that would cost.
Aside from my farm’s daily maintenance, there’s some other issues that has me down. I’m tired of begging for more Bushels only to find myself lacking the required amount for my recipe’s ingredients or that my Bushel inventory has exceeded its limits. How can you craft without a Bushel? The never-ending task of accepting and requesting endless amounts of help requests is daunting. But how can you complete construction projects or Co-Op without neighbor help? What, I thought everyone had forgotten about Co-Op farming?! Yes, they have. Co-op Farming and neighbor visits, meaning actually visiting your neighbors’ farms, have become obsolete. This makes me a little sad because I actually like visiting my neighbors’ farms and seeing what they have done with the place- I get a tiny view into what their paradise farm would be and it continues to amaze me how their individual personality is able to shine through. Neat freaks, collectors, hoarders, decorators, unconventional hay bale artists- the farms of my neighbors are all so unique, but I don’t have the time to visit anymore because there’s just too much else to get done.

Expansions never seem to satisfy my hunger for more land and it’s making me a selective buyer. Something new in the FarmVille Market has to pass my test because I’ve become finicky in my FarmVille ways- Do I have room on my farm? No. Besides, oftentimes the items I convince myself are good purchases eventually find themselves packing to collect dust in my Storage Cellar. Even my once precious Mastery Signs, ironically the prized possession that I strive for, are being subjected to my persnickety selectiveness as I think about storing those I’m a little less fond of. For me, Mastery Signs, specifically Animal Mastery Signs, are becoming more of a space occupier than something to proudly display on my farm, yet I dare not delete them.
There are only 24 hours in a day which is never enough time even in real life. There are only 23 hours in a FarmVille day which is even less and apparently still not enough. Perhaps it was the simplicity of farming that attracts so many to FarmVille and although now that simplicity seems more complex, it’s still alive and thriving as the basic concepts remain the foundation for running a FarmVille farm. It’s just that not everyone is down for the commitment and time involved of running an ambitious farm jam-packed with every feature available, but does it really matter?  I still love to play the game and my farm is my precious home away from home (but on the internet) which is why I keep farming . . . the plowing, the planting, the harvesting, a continuous cycle of growth and I still can’t stop watching my crops.
Is FarmVille becoming WorkVille for you or are you up for the challenge? How much time do you spend farming on a daily basis? Do you participate in all the features and which are most important to you?