There are dangerous moments inside the Game where players can either excel and continue on a high scoring path, or succumb to temptation and be lost. One of the biggest threats to a player is the opportunity to become a farmer. The term ‘farmer’ comes from old-style video games, and it refers to the process of doing a simple task over and over again, gaining a small reward each time the task is complete.
Here’s an example of how it works; there are small animals roaming around on a little playing field. Each animal is easy to slay, and when it is destroyed, you gain a small amount of game money for your efforts. There are bigger creatures to slay, but that involves more time and risk with the possibility that you may die, and it’s game over. So the player decides to be safe and spend time killing the tiny creatures. Their reasoning is that they can remain in the game and, over time, acquire as much game money playing safely as they could taking large risks and trying to bring down the big monster. They begin to methodically kill the small, easy animals. After an hour, they think about quitting for the day, but they see how much game money they have acquired and think, ‘I’m doing very good! Perhaps I will stay for another hour and really get some cash.’ They do this and after another hour, just as they are about to quit for the day, a tiny creature gives more than just a small amount of game money — it drops an item which the player can sell to other players for even more money.
The player can’t stop now — what if that tiny creature over there has another one of these great treasures? The player convinces himself that he can afford to play for just another hour, and as simple as that, the player has become a farmer. He will come back each and every day to do the same thing, kill tiny creatures and earn small amounts of game coin, selling the rare extra items when (if) it appears again. Each day the farmer will spend more time playing, mindlessly clicking the mouse as his eyes glaze over and he passes time stuck in an endless, boring loop. Soon he will tell his friends that he’s too busy to go out with them, instead staying home to farm in the game. All he will think about when he’s not playing the game is the game. His work performance will decline and his social life will disappear. That’s farming from the old style video games. It almost destroyed our society.
Farming in the Game is much worse.
A promising player does well at the beginning of her play, then her avatar becomes an adult and moves out on its own. Her avatar has many plans and dreams and goals inside the Game, all a combination of credits spent and strategies formulated before beginning the play. On the way to her goal of becoming a doctor, she takes a part time job at a factory to help pay for schooling and the bills. She soon believes that working at the factory, while paying less than a doctor earns, certainly is easier and does add up. She gets some overtime and sees her pay increase more than she had hoped for. Soon she decides to abandon her dreams of becoming a doctor and remains at the factory. She’s become a farmer. If you were following this player, you’ll quickly lose interest as she becomes a boring, automated creature. Over time, her life will become a depressing, sad drama that ends with an unviewed and droll play.
The Game is full of farmers in so many diverse farming situations. Drugs, miserable relationships, avatars stuck in jobs and unhappy yet unwilling to change, gambling addictions… the list goes on and on and on. Millions of individuals are caught in a trap and will never escape.
Be careful to avoid this trap. There are credits to spend so that, during your play, people and events will come into your life to help prevent you from becoming a farmer. Spend the credits so that this happens, and spend the credits so you recognize the danger when it attempts to fold you into its soft, warm, destructive embrace.
The most important lesson to learn from the Game is this: don’t be a farmer. It’s a lesson very few ever learn.