Yes, I play Farmville. Yes, it is a slightly silly game with strange animals and double yes, it can be annoying. It’s also a mental break…for me.
Farmville has a love/hate relationship with those who know it. Many cannot stand the thought of this game. They don’t want to hear it, see it, know it, or be bugged to join it. Others, well, we play it, share it, set goals for it. It’s just one of those Internet/Facebook items everyone knows about.
Is it a time waster or is there a strange creativity aspect to each and every farm? This thought came to me while working on one of my other blogs. I kept switching between what I was typing and a patch of veggies I was harvesting in the English Countryside of my Farmville. The mini break and distraction allowed my mind the freedom to sort out a thought. Which then grew into this whole idea of…am I actually being creative on a simple Internet game?
Think for a moment…okay, those who are sticking around to read more, think for a moment. Each and every farm is individually created by the player. Each player decides the building, animal, planting location. Some have set areas for items, while others create patterns with the items available. Some participate in the game quests. Others, like me, play to see how many levels they can reach or how much Farmville coins they can collect.
I can’t believe I’m actually going to share this, but…I do have a storyline going on in my head regarding my farms. There, I said it. My imagination runs away with why I have each farm set up the way I do. Why one farm has more of this and less of that. Why another is smaller and another is the vacation spot.
No, I don’t have three Facebook ids, Farmville allows you a home farm, an English Countryside, and a Lighthouse Cove farm. I think there’s a winter one, too, but I haven’t reached it…yet.
How is playing this little distraction any different than those who play role-playing games online? Each requires an imagination of character, world, theme set-up. In each the player loses him/herself for a little bit.
Game playing, no matter the medium, requires imagination. Requires you to create outside of your normal self. It’s creativity as it’s meant to be…a way to escape from the mundane.
Exactly the reason I never laugh at my husband for playing fantasy sports! Writers have a natural creative outlet not shared by a lot of folks. But EVERYBODY needs a creative outlet, a world they've created themselves with their imaginations. And while games with our children and grandchildren are fun — they are much more than that. That humans can play, imagine, create — I think that's the thing that keeps most of us sane.
Exactly. We need the escape from reality whether through creativity, play, even any form of exercise.
We all know exercise is good for the body, and that includes the mind. However, imagination keeps the mind alive and growing…at least that's my opinion.
Thanks for dropping by.
Chris