My mom and I have talked about this several times. Not because it bore multiple discussions but rather because she forgot that we'd discussed it before. Of course when I tell her something like "Farmville is a virus" she takes me seriously. Whoops.

But from my perspective, it is. It infects people. Then they spread it to people they know because the disease drives them to assist in the propagation. The application and its status spam have long since been blocked on my Facebook account. I haven't played it. It's unlikely that I ever will.

So why is there a comic here about it? Well apparently it's played by 32 million people per day. [more info] That stat netted it a news article. And even if it annoys the crap out of me that number is worth a nod of grudging respect and exactly one comic.

I would like more information on an antidote, as I have been infected.

My mom's been playing it for about half a year or so.. she started complaining that her computer was too slow to play it a few weeks ago... after a bit of checking, it turns out that the 'program' took up all her RAM.
(note: it's not a bad computer. it ran F.E.A.R. on full graphics when I had it)
crappy programming if you ask me... on the other hand, if it's got 32 million people per day, I guess ... it's rather sophisticated.

anyway, now she's committed to getting a new computer. the first time in her life that she buys her own computer. and it's because of ... what is basically spam.

FWIW - you can block the spam from Farmville without blocking everything from those that play it. If you hover over the right side of the status entry you'll get a Hide button. From there you can choose to hide the application that makes the event or the author that sent it.

<Albert Wesker> In less than five minutes, we'll reach the optimal altitude for missile deployment...Farmville will be released into the atmosphere, ensuring complete global saturation.

Woody, like you I innoculated myself from Farmville as well as Mafia Wars. I barely have enough bandwidth for my current game addictions hobies without adding another.

Such a pointless game, if it wasn't on Facebook which has over 350 million users, it wouldn't be as popular as it is.

Vermi... uhmm, who are you giving that advice to exactly?

Originally Posted by Eleriel:

My mom's been playing it for about half a year or so.. she started complaining that her computer was too slow to play it a few weeks ago... after a bit of checking, it turns out that the 'program' took up all her RAM.
(note: it's not a bad computer. it ran F.E.A.R. on full graphics when I had it)
crappy programming if you ask me... on the other hand, if it's got 32 million people per day, I guess ... it's rather sophisticated.

It's because Flash is a memory hog. Though it did seem to run a bit better playing it through Farmville.com as opposed to Facebook. Another thing, it ran poorly on my wife's machine with IE8. It improved a lot using Google Chrome.

ugh, Farmville, I don't think I'd ever play it and I despise it...