Farmville Faces Increasingly Stiff Competition in the Farming Sim GenreFarmville is certainly the most popular, but by no means is it the first farming simulation game to hit the gaming world. Believe it or not there have been several farming sims in past years, and one notable franchise, Harvest Moon, which has seen several incarnations and gone through numerous facelifts throughout that time.
Farmville is extremely popular, with a massive user base. But it is by no means the first farm simulation game around. Far from it. There have been farmving sims for a long while. One particular farming sim called Harvest Moon has had many new releases throughout the farming sim history.
Natsume was the name of the company that made Harvest Moon. Unfortunately for them, even though they had good reviews for Harvest Moon, their game did not sell especially well, and many in the gaming business ridiculed them for the game idea.
For 15 years Natsume was one of the pioneers and the nurturer for the farming genre.They paved the way for Zynga, and over the course of only 1 year, Zynga has made a home run from the farmving genre.
However, Harvest Moon was not the first farming Sim. The first notable farm sim came from Maxis, who had Sim Farm. Which was similar to Sim City. Sim Farm had some notable features of storms, and natural disasters as well as being able to interact with a town nearby.
After Sim Farm, the Harvest Moon series took over for nearly a decade, living in relative gaming obscurity, though it did have a loyal cult following of fans who swore by the game. The PC did see several smaller releases as well, such as the Farming Frenzy games, though these were not nearly as complex or involved as the Harvest Moon games or Sim Farm.
Currently
There are currently several farming games available, including multiple entries on Facebook, such as Farm Town. The Harvest Moon series is still alive and kicking, and the new Farming Simulator series is showing some great promise. Even handheld gaming systems have gotten in on the farming fun, with Farm Life, John Deere - Harvest in the Heartland, and several Harvest Moon iterations appearing on the Nintendo DS. Even the iPhone has gotten in on the act, with farming apps such as Papaya Farm.
One of the most notable ways in which Farmville deviates from past entries in the farming sim genre is that it operates via a real clock system rather than an in-game clock system. This has some positives as well as some negatives.
The slower clock makes it easier to accomplish your tasks while playing, as well as introducing real world time management skills into the equation. On the downside, the game lacks any sense of urgency such as that found in games utilizing a much faster in-game clock, coupled with a day/night and/or changing seasons system.
The social aspect of course is also wholly different from the majority of other farming sims. All other games have been a solitary journey around the farm, while Farmville makes it fun to interact with and help others.
Farmville has enjoyed massive success, expect more farming genre games to appear in the future.
How long will the farm genre and farmville enjoy this huge success? Many think it will go on for years.
Whether or not you believe farming sims will dominate the future of gaming, there’s no doubt that they’re doing so in the present, courtesy of Farmville. How long the fertile fields will last though is anyone’s guess.
Author Resource:
Jason loves farmville and social media, read more farmville reviews at http://farmvillenotes.com
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/rss.jpg "XML Feed For RSS")