Sucked Into Facebook

Faithful readers will remember that I resisted Facebook (FB) for a long, long time. Like many others, I felt that it was a competition to blogging and was going to ruin the blogosphere. And, in truth, I think it has a bit. I just couldn't see the sense in reading, or posting, stuff like "Ms X woke up with a smile on her face this morning!" or "Mr X had oatmeal for breakfast today".



I think that as time has progressed and people have learned better how to use FB, the posts have gotten better. Even more meaningful. Even educational at times. Sure, there are still the occasional posts like I mentioned, hell, I even do it once in awhile. But on the whole, I am enjoying FB and think that it has enriched my life. To a point.



I have gradually become sucked into the games side of Facebook. Oh, the games. Although I thoroughly enjoy them, they are a tremendous eater of time. But, then, I am retired. What else do I have but time?



I started out with Nightclub City. Build a nightclub, staff it, serve drinks, spin music, decorate it. Make money. (all references to money are purely gaming money, not real money) I have built and maximized out two different clubs now. I am working on two more.



Then I discovered Cityville. Now this was something I could get into. Challenging and rewarding. Put in those roads. Build those businesses and housing units. Plant crops, supply your businesses. Send out ships to faraway ports to bring back goods. Fun stuff but sometimes frustrating as everything is run on a combination of money and energy. Run out of either and you are dead in the road for awhile.



Then came Frontierville. Kind of a cross between CV and Farmville. Takes place in the pioneering era and one is beset with bears, gophers, snakes and other varmints trying to ruin what you have accomplished. All the characters are done as old fashioned settlers and come from hardy stock.



And then the Grand Daddy of them all....Farmville. Man, I resisted that with all my being. I have heard horror stories of that game eating up people's lives as they became slaves to their crop harvest times. But, recently, I spent some time visiting a friend and she is an avid FV player. She convinced me to just give it a try. That's all it took. I have some other friends who play FV also so between them, they referred quite a few friends to me to become instant neighbors. I should mention, all of these games require neighbors in order to make any progress. After just one day, I was hooked. And it is not the black hole of time sucking that I thought it would be.

I have to say, there is one thing that stands out to me about these games more than anything else. And that is how absolutely nice, caring, thoughtful and generous everybody is to everybody else. It has totally astounded me and warmed my heart to interact with people such as these. Even though many of these people are nothing more than names to me, I feel like we are friends and have each other's backs. Nice.

So, if any of you readers out there play Frontierville, Cityville, or Farmville, give me a shout. I would be pleased and proud to be your neighbors.