Brad Inspects His Crops on FarmVille

Have you tried FarmVille, a recent Facebook game craze? I got curious over the holidays at family gatherings, when I’d hear cow moos emanating from laptops. At first the game struck me as incredibly silly (it is), but I decided to give it a try, if for no other reason than to have an excuse to have fun with friends and family.

Now that I’ve been at it for a couple weeks, I’m starting to see that how we build our farms tells us a lot about our strategic selves.

How to Play FarmVille

Before I get into that, here’s a little bit about how FarmVille works. You get a plot of land, and you put farm stuff on it. You can buy crops, trees, animals, and all kinds of buildings and decorations. When you harvest the crops or milk the cows, you earn points and get game money. As you accumulate money and move up in points, you have access to more crops, trees, etc.

Being on Facebook, FarmVille is naturally social by nature. You can ask your friends to be neighbors, and do nice things like give them gifts and fertilize their crops. Doing these good deeds earns you money and experience points – very much in the spirit of social media marketing, come to think of it.

What’s the point of FarmVille? To tell you the truth, I’m not completely sure, which is a startling confession for a post about FarmVille and strategy. Do any of you know? Best I can tell, the point is to move up in experience and expand your farm as quickly as possible. But there’s no pressure – you can be a gentleman farmer if you’d like, taking it easy, living off the fat of the land.

From what I can tell, some folks play for keeps, and others are just coasting along having fun.

Your Farm Reflects Your Strategic Nature

FarmVille starts you out with a blank canvas. You have lots of buying options and can put things anywhere you want on your land. Some of my neighbors have highly organized farms, with everything systematically and efficiently arranged. Other farms look like a giant bag of farm toys fell out of the sky and splattered across their acreage. Some farmers run lean and mean, with just a few high yield crops and maybe no animals at all. Other farmers have estates that look like something out of a fairy tale, with ornate manors, holiday decorations, lush flowers growing on their hedge lined plots, and every animal under the sun roaming around everywhere. And while some let their animals roam free, others cram their livestock into impossibly small pens.

Here are some things I’ve learned about my own strategic nature playing FarmVille. I share them in the hope these insights may help you uncover your own strategic self in ways that you can apply to your business.

I’m a ready, fire, aim strategist. It would have been the easiest thing in the world for me to ask family members how to play before diving in. I could have acquired brilliant tips from these experts. Instead, I just started playing and making all kinds of mistakes. And I’m fine with that. Why? Because I’m unlikely to make those mistakes again; whereas, had I simply taken notes from a FarmVille pro, the lesson wouldn’t have sunk in and I’d be less aware of the dangers.

I’m content to let my vision come into focus over time. It doesn’t bother me to play FarmVille without knowing the point, or having worked out a master plan in advance. For me, the journey is a reward unto itself. I’m elated when a neighbor gives me a cow, even though I have no idea why I should want it. On the other hand, I get great satisfaction from gradually understanding the game, and making moves that have ever more strategic value. Yes, the journey is rewarding, but the destination still matters. Yes, I don’t mind wasting resources – as long as I’m wasting fewer and fewer over time.

I’m a committed tinkerer. Now that I’ve figured out how important conserving space is in FarmVille, it drives me absolutely nuts wherever I see wasted space on my farm. I can’t stand the fact that I left a narrow strip of basically unusable land between my border and first row of crops. Fixing that is going to be a real pain, but for me, a pain full of pleasure. This little streak of perfectionism probably explains my attraction to SEO copywriting and content optimization.

farmville chickens

Hold On to Your Chickens

I like complexity. The idea of churning out one cash crop day after day has no appeal for me. I prefer a lot of crops, a variety of trees, and plenty of happy little animals. I’ll hold on to my chickens even if I know cows put more money in my pocket. And it’s not just sentimentality – if the rules change (and apparently they do), or if something goes awry, I don’t have all my eggs in one basket, so to speak.

I’m a good observer. I’ve learned a lot about the game by studying my neighbors’ farms. I can spot great ideas … and steal them. I can see the spirit behind the thing as well. Is a farmer fun loving or serious? An organized thinker or a wanderer? Detail oriented or visionary? How farmers arrange their farms speaks volumes to me.

Over to You

So how about it – do you play FarmVille? What have you learned about your strategic self in the process? And whether you play or not, how does knowing your strategic self make you more effective in business?

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word sell inc chicago online marketing servicesChicago based SEO copywriting, blog consulting, and content strategy consulting.