Facebook FarmVille Addict Grows 1400 Dollar Debt
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Mother shocked by credit card bill after son bought coveted virtual items for his farm.
Video game addiction claimed another victim this week and shocked the mother of a 12-year-old boy when she was forced to pay over $1400 from her son’s infatuation with “free” Facebook game FarmVille.
The game, which allows players to manage their own virtual farm by sowing seeds, harvesting crops, raising livestock and building farmhouses is addictively simple, and taps into the gaming model of grinding and character progression to obtain superior items that has made World of Warcraft and other online games so successful.
Like many online games, FarmVille works on a virtual economy. Players earn farm coins by growing their stock and selling their produce in order to upgrade to bigger and better items. However, players can progress quicker in the game by buying additional farm coins for real money. Highly prized collectable items fetch very high prices on the FarmVille market, with players willing to spend huge amounts of farm coins to gain rare items.
FarmVille has amassed a huge following in just 10 months since it was first launched as a Facebook game application. During that time, over 20 per cent of Facebook’s 400 million user base has played the game, with over 84 million active users online.
The boy in question, who has remained anonymous, spent £288 ($442) of his own savings in FarmVille before borrowing his Mother’s credit card to buy extra virtual farm coins. In the space of two weeks he managed to rack up bills of £625 ($960) bringing the total spent on his farm to £913 ($1402).
Game creator Zynga refused to refund the Mother money spent in the real world to fund the virtual farm, although they did suggest she use password protection on her computer for future use. HSBC said that they would only refund the money if the son was reported for a criminal offense.
The Mother refused however, telling The Guardian newspaper: “Obviously the idea of a stupid farm simulation jeopardising his future earnings is not something that I want to consider.”
Weird.
Good article! I play FarmVille and I love it. My farm is neatly arranged and produces very little. Beauty over profit! I like looking at it the way it is and hardly re-arrange it now. It’s like a Zen thing, it relaxes me. Some of my neighbours have items that can only be purchased with real money and they buy everything that comes out. They are also level-mad. It’s a bit scary. If they ever opened a FarmVille addicts 12-step group, instead of the AA slogan “Don’t take that first drink” they would say “Don´t plant that first square”.